


The Dawn of the Last Battle

by JuliaFC



Series: A Miraculous Ending [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Needs Help, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Furious Plagg, Heartbroken Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Idiots in Love, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, Protective Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Protective Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28673697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuliaFC/pseuds/JuliaFC
Summary: Stuck at home sick and alone, Adrien stumbles upon something he shouldn't have. Unwilling to burden his friends, he experiences the worst night of his life. Plagg makes a hard decision, and maybe this night will turn out to be the best one yet. Full Lovesquare story.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: A Miraculous Ending [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2200557
Comments: 138
Kudos: 256





	1. An (un)lucky Discovery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EtoileLeadSama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtoileLeadSama/gifts).



> **Betas:**  
> [ **Khanofallorcs**](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khanofallorcs) **,**[ **Agrestebug**](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgresteBug/pseuds/AgresteBug) **,**[ **rosehealer02**](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosehealer02) **,**[ **genxha**](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Genxha) **,**[ **TheObsessedRavenclaw** ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheObsessedRavenclaw)**and**[ **Syrus11037**](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrus11037/pseuds/Syrus11037) **. Thank you all so much!**
> 
> **Cover art by:**[ **Rosehealer02** ](https://www.deviantart.com/rosehealer02)**at Deviantart. Your art bunnies are always the best!**
> 
> **Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.**
> 
> **This is a gift for my sœur du cœur,**[ **Etoile-Lead-Sama** ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtoileLeadSama/pseuds/EtoileLeadSama)**. Merry Christmas hun!**

[ ](https://ibb.co/25KY2nC)

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

Adrien walked aimlessly through the grand hall. The marble that covered the floors and stairs was cold and impersonal. He had never understood why Mother had agreed to let Father build such a pretentious and self-indulgent manor. Mother wasn’t the type to like this sort of place. She loved cosy and homely places; she had said on plenty of occasions when he was very little that she would rather be in a box, but happy and with the people she loved, than feel lonely in a massive house that wasn’t a home. 

Adrien had very vague memories of the little attic where they lived before Father had been discovered by Audrey Bourgeois. From what he remembered, it was a tiny self-contained flat on the top floor of a tall building with no lift and an immense amount of stairs to climb every time. There was no study, no privacy. But there were also those little details that his mother loved so much. The little souvenirs from the places she and his father had visited before he was born, the posters of the first couple of films she had acted in and plenty of pictures, showing his mother and father happy, smiling in front of a monument or in a garden. There were also a few pictures showing his birth and he had a clear memory of one where his father stood proud, holding his bundle of joy in his arms and giving baby Adrien such a soft look that the mere memory of it bruised Adrien’s heart. He didn’t know why he had remembered that picture just now, but he had and he couldn’t get it out of his mind.

He sniffled and coughed loudly. Bloody hell, he should never have agreed to take outside pictures at the latest photoshoot. He had had a tickle in his throat since then, and this morning he had woken up with nearly no voice, a temperature and a tickly cough that was driving him insane. 

Father and Nathalie were in Tibet, on some sort of business of the  _Gabriel_ brand over there (Adrien had no idea what, but Father had never liked sharing details of his work with him, so he hadn’t asked any more questions). This morning he felt so off that even the Gorilla had noticed it and had sent a text message to Nathalie to inform her. Nathalie had immediately replied that Adrien had to stay at home, because he had scheduled photoshoots all the following week and he certainly couldn’t work at his best if he was sick. There was only so much that make-up could hide.

With the memory of that picture and of the little flat he had lived his happiest memories in still vivid in his head, Adrien stumped across the door of his father’s office. He looked around left and right conspiratorially, although he felt a little stupid after that, because Gorilla had taken an hour off and nobody else was around to even care about what Adrien was planning to do. But the habit had been so ingrained into him that he couldn’t help it. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” asked Plagg from the inside pocket of his shirt. The little kwami came out in the open and gave his charge a questioning look. “If someone finds you in your father’s office you will be grounded like last time and you will regret it.”

Adrien reached a hand to pat his little friend on the head and give him a quick rub behind his ears. “Nobody will know. Gorilla isn’t even here, he went out to do some business, remember?” He winced at the sound of his own voice. He sounded so groggy that he could hardly recognise the voice as his. He was shaken by another fit of coughs that left him breathless. “And besides,” he continued as soon as he stopped coughing, “I only want to look at my mother’s portrait. It’s not fair that Father had it installed in his office, where he can see it all the time but nobody else can.” He sighed. “I just want to look at it, that’s all.”

With a firm gesture, he put a hand on the handle of his father’s office door and sprung it open, walking inside with determination. He looked around. His father’s office was as clinical and impersonal as always; there was no paper out of place, not even a sign of something that made it feel like a place that was lived in, except for the massive portrait that towered at the side of the door. Adrien knew that the portrait wasn’t there only for show, as it hid a combination safe that held belongings that his Father didn’t want anybody to touch. He still remembered the day he had sneaked in his father’s office a couple of years before and had taken away the book that his father had called ‘the book of his inspiration’. That day he had lost his father’s most treasured possession, and had been so close to getting grounded for life and not being allowed to school or anywhere again. Also, his father had been akumatised because of it and the Collector had been a terrible akuma to fight. No, Adrien had no intention of repeating the experience, thank you very much. All he wanted this time was to look at his mother’s portrait and get lost again in those eyes so similar to his own. 

He moved closer to the massive portrait and spent a long time staring at the beautiful woman sitting on a golden throne, in front of the golden starry background. His eyes filled with tears as he noted every single detail, her soft look, her beautiful smile. He missed his mother so much. Without thinking, he leaned on the portrait and put his hands on his mother’s face and deep sobs shook his shoulders. He wanted to wrap his arms around the woman’s frame and squeeze her into a hug. He wanted to talk to her, tell her about his day, share with her his worries, his exhaustion at his father’s always more overwhelming demands, his doubts about his feelings for his friends, for his Lady, and the growing feelings he had recently discovered in his heart for the other girl with pigtails in his life. He wanted to ask her for advice, to laugh at her puns and to hear her crystal laughter every time that he punned to her. 

He felt Plagg coming out from the internal pocket of his shirt and stroke his cheek softly with his small paw. He tried to stop the flow of his tears, but he found that he just couldn’t. He felt such a heavy pressure in his heart that needed release, as his cotton filled head couldn’t even string two coherent thoughts together.

“Let it all out, gamin,” said Plagg with such a soft tone that Adrien nearly didn’t recognise his voice. “You need it.” 

As he felt Plagg’s paws stroke softly the back of his head, Adrien leaned harder on the portrait and put his hands on it, holding tight the little holes on the surface, as if with that gesture he could keep hold of his mother somehow. And that’s when it happened. He pushed a bit harder on the little holes in his desperate need to keep hold of something in his hands, and he felt something moving behind him. 

Plagg gasped on his side. “What’s that?” he heard his furry friend say and he forced himself to lose contact with his mother’s portrait and looked around. He just needed one glance at Plagg and his gaze darted to the place where the little God of Destruction had locked his electric green eyes. And Adrien’s own eyes widened, because what had appeared on the floor near the portrait was a circular hole he had nearly fallen into by merely moving his feet. He stared eyes wide at the hole as a circular shape emerged from underneath the floor and returned in its place, filling the hole so precisely that he nearly thought he’d imagined it. 

“How—” he said, but Plagg interrupted him saying, “You must have switched something on when you put your fingers into those holes.” Adrien turned around and faced again the portrait of his mother. There was something very wrong going on and he wanted to get to the end of it today. So his mother’s portrait wasn’t only hiding a safe? What kind of secrets was his father keeping from him? He knew he would never be able to find out after Father and Nathalie came back from Tibet. And with the Gorilla breathing down his neck, there was no way he wouldn’t have a second chance at this. He moved his feet to stand exactly where he had seen the circle opening on the floor and, with a little difficulty, he moved his body to put his fingers in the holes. 

At the beginning, nothing happened. He had to tentatively move his fingers a couple of times, and eventually he felt his body fall, as if he was on an invisible lift. He gulped awkwardly.

oOoOoOoOoOo

It took a few moments for the lift to bring him down to the next floor. Adrien looked in bewilderment at the massive lair that opened up in front of him. He had no idea that a cave as imposing as this was hidden underneath the mansion. All around him were beautiful flowers and white butterflies that looked suspiciously like the ones that Hawkmoth charged with negative energy to create akumas. He saw a small bridge at the centre of the cave leading to a sort of little island in the far distance where there towered a symbol that looked like a very stylised butterfly. What was it on that island, a… coffin? That was what it looked like, at least.

Plagg flew around and Adrien could see the concern in the electric green eyes of his little friend as he overtook Adrien who was walking carefully on the bridge and took a quick glance at the ‘coffin’ on display. He heard Plagg gasp loudly and the little God of Destruction looked at his charge with a gleam of pure terror (and something else that Adrien wasn’t able to discern because he’d never seen it on the little black cat’s eyes. Pity? Worry? Sadness? Empathy? Hang on a second—for Plagg to show empathy, whatever was in the coffin had to be really bad. Yes, really,  _really_ bad). Adrien’s heart skipped a beat as he scrutinised his little friend’s frown.

Plagg’s ears went flat on his little head when he saw that Adrien was nearly there. “Uh,  _gamin_. Maybe it’s better if you don’t see this. Can we come back here with someone else? Ladybug preferably?” Plagg’s eyes kept darting from the coffin to Adrien, who was quickly getting closer now. “I really mean it, Adrien. I wou—” 

But as Plagg said that, Adrien had approached enough to start seeing the content of the coffin, and his heart skipped a beat to then start racing madly in his chest. It couldn’t be! He ran, as panic spread deep down in his soul. When he got to the coffin, all he could do was fall on his knees and gawk. And sob, unable to stop his tears from falling down his cheeks, and from his chin down the sides of his jeans. 

She was as beautiful as he remembered her. She smiled so softly, as if she were having the nicest of dreams. She hadn’t changed at all, not a wrinkle, not a sign of the time passing. Her hair was still the same beautiful blonde as his and her lips as plump as they had always been. The only detail that gave away the fact that she wasn’t actually sleeping was how pale she was. And the fact that she didn’t move. She held a red rose in her hands and wore the same clothes he had seen her wearing the last time he had seen her. 

“ _Maman_ ,” he whispered quietly, but the word still echoed in the emptiness of the cave. His tears were clouding his eyesight by now and he couldn’t see almost anything anymore. He quickly wiped his eyes with the back of his hand as he kept looking at her hungrily, trying to imprint into his memory every detail of that beautiful face. 

“I’m sorry, _gamin_ , I should have stopped you,” said Plagg, but Adrien wasn’t paying any attention. He managed finally to tear his gaze from the sleeping face of his mother and started looking around the coffin, trying to find any sign of a mechanism to open the glass. Finally, after some research, he found a couple of buttons and when he clicked one, the glass disappeared. He ran instantly at her side and his arms wrapped themselves around her chest almost without his brain needing to order them to do it. He experienced it all in a daze, the coldness of her body against his chest, the abandon of her frame in his arms. There was no stiffness, no rigidity. His mother could very well have been asleep if she hadn’t been so cold, and still. He put an ear on her chest and he could hear a heartbeat. It was weak, but it was definitely there. _Maman_ was alive! His heart seemed to be exploding into his chest as new tears fell from his eyes.

Suddenly, he heard a loud beep rhythmically alerting from the coffin. Surely there was some mechanism that was checking his mother’s vital signs, and because he had pulled her up, it was warning the system that something was wrong. Reluctantly, he squeezed his mother’s body one last time and gently deposed her back into the coffin.

His thoughts were running wild and as soon as he closed the glass, causing the alarm to finally stop, he started looking around. The wheels in his brain were turning as he noted again the butterflies. And he thought again at how strange it was that a cave as grand as this was hidden underneath the Mansion. And what was _Maman_ doing there, in a coffin? What had happened to her? Why didn’t Father tell him about her? Why make him think that she had disappeared if she hadn’t? 

As he had been looking after his mother, Plagg had been exploring the cave, maybe to leave him some privacy. When the little God of Destruction returned to his side, Adrien wiped again his eyes dry and gave his little friend a quick pat on the head. 

“There’s another lift over there, _gamin_ ,” he said. Adrien started to move towards it and Plagg flew right in front of his eyes. “Are you sure you want to see where it goes?”

Adrien gulped forcefully. “I am,” he said in a voice even more groggy than he had had upstairs. “I need to get to the bottom of this. I have a really bad feeling, Plagg, and I think you have the same feeling too.” He followed the little black furball until they reached the shiny metallic door of a lift that reflected his face dimly. His hand was shaking when he pushed the button to call down the lift and stared into his own green eyes, rimmed with red. The lift opened the door and the internal cubicle appeared; Adrien made to walk in, but Plagg didn’t move from his position in front of his face and looked at him very seriously. 

“If you take this lift, there’s no coming back, _gamin_. Think about it. Up to now, you can just lull yourself in the illusion that your father is trying to keep your mother alive to find a cure for her and hasn’t told you anything. You take this lift… and your life _will_ change, forever.” His ears went flat on his head, a sad frown furrowing his eyebrows. “Are you ready to face the consequences of your decision? We can take this lift another time. Maybe with Ladybug?”

Adrien gulped again. His body was shaking like a leaf, but his gaze found a determination he didn’t even think he had into himself as he nodded resolutely. He stepped inside the cubicle of the lift and pushed one of the two buttons inside, the one with an arrow pointing up.

* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Hello again! I know, one more story. This is a Christmas present for a wonderful girl, who's really important in my life. I was so lucky to meet her and I have to thank Miraculous and writing Fanfictions for it. Etoile, you're a wonderful person and deserve a wonderful Christmas present. Please have a look at her profile and read her stories, they are wonderful!**

**This story will be updated once a week, maybe more if everything goes well. It's all written, it just need a last round of editing.**

**Hope you liked the first chapter. This introduces my headcanon about what life was like for the Agrestes before Audrey discovered Gabriel. Hope you like my idea of it! Please leave me a review if you do (and even if you don't), I love reading your comments!**

**In the next chapter**

  * **“I just cannot believe it. Nooroo had been here this whole time and _I_ haven’t noticed?”**


  * **“I will make you proud.”**


  * **“ _Buginette_ , I need to talk to you urgently, it’s very important.”**



**Last but not least, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server,** [ **Miraculous Fanworks** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **(for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you next week here with chapter 2!**


	2. The Fugitive

When the lift stopped and the door opened, Adrien couldn’t avoid closing his eyes. He stepped cautiously out of the cubicle, felt the lift’s door closing right behind him, and stayed for a long time, eyes clenched, body shaking in fear. When he dared open one eye, his eyes were met by pitch dark. He fumbled at the side of the lift and found a switch, which he pressed, revealing a mechanism that opened a hole in the wall (or rather a window?) right in front of him. But that wasn’t a good thing, as he was completely unprepared to face the sight that appeared in front of his eyes, already watery for what he had seen in the downstairs lair. 

The mechanism opened up a window that displayed a complicated decoration that looked like a big butterfly, exactly like the one he had seen towering on top of his mother’s coffin in the underground lair. As the mechanism opened revealing the window, a storm of white butterflies rose from the ground and gave the scene a surreal look. Adrien’s mouth was wide open and he felt all blood draining from his face. With the last bit of will power left before he completely freaked out, he moved his gaze to meet Plagg’s green eyes. The rage he saw in his little friend’s gaze hit Adrien hard.

“I can’t believe it,” muttered the God of Destruction. “I just  _ cannot  _ believe it. Nooroo had been here this whole time and  _ I  _ haven’t noticed?  _ I  _ haven’t sensed him? And Duusu too?” He hit his forehead with a paw. “Stupid! I’m so stupid! Tikki will be so disappointed with me!” Adrien gasped when he saw the first tears coming out the corner of Plagg’s eyes. 

He tried to console his friend by putting a hand on his head and trying to rub behind his ears, but Plagg jerked off, leaving Adrien looking at his hand, a little hurt. “I’m sorry, buddy. Ladybug was right that time, it was  _ him _ . He’s Hawkmoth. We should have realised it was him when we found the Grimoire! Instead we allowed him to fool us by akumatising himself!” He clenched his fists and his arms shook as he roared in frustration. “I can’t believe that I lived under this roof this entire time with a supervillain and I haven’t noticed.”

“ _ Two _ supervillains,” pointed out Plagg. “Ice Queen must be Mayura.” 

They stood for a long time in front of the window in the deafening silence, only broken by the flapping sound of the dozen of wings fluttering around. In his mind’s eye, Adrien could now recognise Hawkmoth very easily as his father, based on his memory of the few times he and the villain had met. His voice had the same cold and commanding tone, the build was the same, and so was the expression on his face on most occasions. 

He breathed heavily at the realisation that his father had hit him and fought against him too many times to count, but that was somehow excusable, since he didn’t know who hid behind the Black Cat mask. What was  _ really _ unforgivable was that he had tried to kill  _ him _ ,  _ Adrien  _ him, letting him fall off the height of Montparnasse Tower (but then had allowed Ladybug to save him at the last minute). He had also put the life of his friends, and of the people of Paris, in danger too many times. On the top of that, he had argued that he didn’t want Adrien to attend school because of the dangers in the world, while  _ he  _ had been the cause of most of those dangers.

Now Adrien understood why he had never been akumatised before. He had thought he’d been lucky, but instead no. It must have been a failed attempt of his father to ‘protect’ him by ‘keeping him out of danger’. How wrong he could have been!

Just one question was left in his mind, as he eyed a white butterfly fly close to his head and go past it, continuing to flutter around Plagg, and then disappearing in the darkness of the room. 

_ Why? _ Why had his father become the monster that had terrified Paris for the last few years? Yes, he had always been a bit self-indulgent and over the top, he was controlling and manipulating to the point of literally running the life of his own son. But Adrien would’ve never thought that his father would be so merciless and cruel. 

_ Why? _

Then, in a flash, he remembered the coffin of his mother he had seen on full display downstairs and he sucked his breath in, unable to even breathe at the sudden realisation.

“He wants to make the Wish to bring my mother back,” he stated matter-of-factly at Plagg. He heard Plagg sigh, and with the corner of his eyes he saw the little black cat’s ears flattening on his head as he asked thoughtfully, “Would it be so horrible to let him do it?” 

Plagg turned his head at Adrien’s words and took a good look at his charge. Tears were sneaking out of Adrien’s eyes as the boy looked around himself in utter bewilderment. Plagg’s heart broke for the boy. He knew what was going through Adrien’s mind. It was natural—he was only a  _ boy  _ after all. He hadn’t still seen 17 springs and he had found himself with such weight on his shoulders. He had done great until now; Plagg couldn’t blame him for having had a similar thought cross his mind. 

He had seen in the last couple of years how deeply Adrien had suffered for his mother’s disappearance. He had touched with his own paws how lonely, how starving for affection his human friend had been. It wasn’t something that had happened with all his holders, but this time Plagg had actually developed some feelings for this  _ gamin _ he was looking after. He was too lovable not to. Truth to be told, he loved Adrien to bits and he would do anything to see a smile on his face (even if he would never admit it, not even to Tikki. His reputation was at stake, after all). 

It was with a feeling of great heaviness that he shook his head at Adrien’s words. “You know you can’t do that,  _ gamin _ . As harmless and honourable you think such a Wish may be, it would disrupt the balance in the universe. And when the balance of the universe is disrupted, horrible things happen. To counterbalance your mother to wake up, the Wish would require an equal sacrifice. Maybe another person’s life. Maybe even  _ yours _ .” He heard Adrien gasp and continued, “I don’t want to lose you,  _ gamin _ .” Then he saw the soft look that Adrien was giving him and added quickly, “You buy me the best of cheese, after all.”

Adrien smiled and patted his little friend on the head. “Of course, Plagg. And you’re right.”

“As always,” deadpanned Plagg, causing Adrien to laugh softly before resuming his melancholic expression.

“Of course you’re right. No matter how much I would love my mother to be back, what my father has been doing in the last three years is not right. And the Wish he wants to make, although I understand his reasons…” His voice cracked and he gulped painfully (his throat was so sore that just gulping was proving difficult). He stayed quiet for a long time, walking to the butterfly symbol at the window and looking out absentmindedly, staring at the lights of the Ville Lumière starting to turn on in the incoming dusk. 

“I would love  _ Maman  _ back, Plagg. But I know it’s not right. I can’t allow my father to get his hands on the Cat Miraculous. I can’t allow him to find out that I’m Chat Noir.” He gasped, his eyes wide as he was hit with another—terrifying—realisation. “He already nearly figured me out once, Plagg! That time with Gorizilla, he let the akuma drop me off Montparnasse Tower because he wanted… he wanted to force me to  _ transform _ . I barely managed to take him off my scent with the trick I set up with Wayhem! I can’t stay here. One day or another, he will find out. And if he does—”

“We will be in trouble,” finished Plagg. “What are you planning to do, then?”

Adrien turned around and called the lift, stepped inside and pushed the button to go downstairs. Plagg didn’t like the resolute frown on his charge’s face, nor the stern look he exchanged with him. “I’m packing up, and tonight, we’re out of here. I don’t want to spend another night in this place.”

Plagg’s frown deepened. “Adrien, your father isn’t even here right now. Wouldn’t it be better to message Ladybug and talk to her and try to come up with a plan instead than running away in the freezing cold when you’re also sick?”

The lift’s door opened in the underground lair, and Adrien’s eyes filled with tears as he glanced again at his mother’s coffin. He walked slowly towards it and gave one last, longing look to the sleeping figure inside the box. 

“I’m sorry,  _ Maman _ ,” he whispered. “I’m sorry that I can’t allow Father to make his Wish. I miss you so much!” He fell on his knees and hugged again the glass of the coffin, as his tears wet the transparent surface. He cried for a long time, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw something that sped his heartbeat. The rose that his mother was holding into her hands had started losing its petals, as his sobs had shaken the coffin, and had now fallen off her hands. Adrien’s tears had stained the surface of the coffin where his mother’s face was and, for some strange alchemy of the light, it looked as if her mother’s cheeks were wet with tears too. 

He dried his eyes with the back of his hand and stood up tall, stroking for the last time the glass surface that covered his mother’s body. “You’re right,  _ Maman _ . I know. You too wouldn’t have wanted this. You wouldn’t have wanted what Father did and what he wants to do. I know what I  _ need  _ to do.” He sniffed loudly. “I will make you proud.” 

That said he turned around and ran on the bridge, stopping only when he reached the lift that brought them back to his father’s office and pressed the button to go up.

oOoOoOoOoOo

When he emerged from the lift, he walked on his tiptoes up to the door of his father’s office, cracked it open and gave a conspiratorial look around. Good, nobody was in sight. He quietly pulled the door open and went out of the office, taking care to close the door behind him without making any noise. 

“The corridor is clear!” whispered Plagg, zipping back from behind the next corner of the corridor, and Adrien gave him a grateful look. He walked with apparent calm, hands in his jeans’ pockets and nearly pretending to whistle, until he reached the door of his bedroom. The Gorilla wasn’t still anywhere he could see. Maybe he hadn’t been that long into Hawkmoth’s lair after all. With a swift gesture, he opened the door of his bedroom and cautiously closed it behind him. 

But as soon as the door closed, his apparent calm and nonchalance faded and he started running, his breath catching. He went to his closet and picked up a suitcase that he had used many times to go to trips booked for photo shoots out of Paris, and started filling it up with all kinds of first necessity stuff. Jeans, t-shirts, shirts, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel…

“Underwear,  _ gamin _ . Get all the underwear that you can. And socks,” said Plagg and Adrien gave him a grateful look as he picked up a pile of underwear and socks and carefully distributed it inside his suitcase. “And don’t forget my Camembert!” 

“I’ll pack a separate bag for that, shall I?” said Adrien with a sad smile. Plagg pouted but Adrien was serious. Camembert was smelly and he didn’t know how long he would be in need of the clothes in that suitcase without having the commodity of a washing machine to take the stench off them. He picked up a smaller backpack and filled it in with all the Camembert he held into his mini fridge. He also went looking for his passport and ID card, as well as his bank card, and put them into an internal pocket at the back of the backpack.

“You know that if you take any cash out, your father will know where you are?” said Plagg worriedly. 

Adrie reciprocated the worried look. “I hadn’t thought about it, but would I have a choice? I need money to survive!” He sighed and lowered his gaze. “Are you ready, Plagg? We need to go!”

“Wait! Wouldn’t it be better to at least call Ladybug and ask her to meet you at the top of the Eiffel Tower and discuss the matter with her? She’s the Guardian, she needs to know.”

“How am I going to tell her about it without revealing my identity?”

Plagg stared at Adrien and folded his paws on his tiny chest. “You need to try. It’s imperative that the Guardian knows about it. I don’t think that at this point she will be too bothered about finding out who you are.” Then he looked down at the floor and added, in such a low whisper that he was sure Adrien wouldn’t hear, “In fact, had she known who you were from the start, things would have been so much better. But never mind!”

“Okay,” said Adrien. “I will talk to her and I will try my best to avoid revealing my identity. Plagg, claws out!” 

In a flash of green, Adrien disappeared and the hero in black took his place. Chat Noir looked doubtfully at his suitcase and backpack, but decided that he may come and pick them up later. He brought them in the bathroom, locked the door and turned on the shower to create a cover up story for himself, as always. Then he opened the small window of the bathroom and pulled himself out using his baton.

He landed at the Eiffel Tower as the last shades of crimson and purple faded away from the night sky. He sat down and looked at the beautiful view, lost in his thoughts for a long moment. Then he picked up his communicator and called Ladybug. As expected, since tonight wasn’t a patrol night, she went straight into voicemail.

“ _ Buginette _ , I need to talk to you urgently, it’s very important. Please meet me at the Eiffel Tower as soon as you can. I’ll wait for you here,” he said and hung up. As the chill in the wind became ever more chilly, he started shivering and chattering his teeth, trying to focus his gaze on something interesting to divert his attention from the cold. He should have taken something before going out of the mansion, he could feel the shivers running down his spine and he knew that his suit protected him from most weathers. So it must have been just him having a cold. He coughed a couple of times and resumed waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting. 

When the thin scythe of the crescent moon had appeared and moved up the starry sky, Adrien concluded that Ladybug wouldn’t come. He looked at his communicator and saw no messages. It was nearly 8 pm, she would definitely not come, and even if she would, Adrien was starting to feel dizzy. Better if he went home. He picked himself up and made his way back to the mansion, landing in the warmth of his bathroom just in time to hear a loud banging at the door.

“Just a minute!” he said loudly and then muttered, “Claws in.” In a dash of green, Plagg reappeared and Adrien put a finger to his mouth, silently telling him to not say a word. He turned off the shower and put a towel on his head, pretending to have just come out of it. He opened the door, stepping back into his bedroom. The little black cat zipped into the inside pocket of his shirt.

“Oh it’s you,” he then said to the Gorilla. “Sorry I was having a shower.”

The imposing man frowned but gave him a couple of tablets of paracetamol and a glass of water. Oh, that’s why the Gorilla was looking for him. The boy gave his bodyguard a thankful smile and the man grunted, gave him a pat on the back and walked out of the room. 

Adrien took the tablets, feeling thankful that someone, at least, was there to look after him. The Gorilla was the only person he was sorry to leave behind. Funny to say that, but he was maybe the only person Adrien would miss from the mansion. The man didn’t speak and wasn’t exactly friendly, but he did have a good heart and had helped him on a couple of occasions. 

He picked up his phone, his gaze gaining a decisive look. It was the time to start planning his escape. He looked through his contacts and clicked on Nino’s phone number. 

“ _ Mec _ ?” said Nino’s tired voice.

“Oh hi, Nino, sorry, I didn’t think you were asleep.”

“No, I wasn’t,” said Nino. “I’m just quiet because Alya has fallen asleep on my chest, that’s all.”

“Oh, I see. Are you at Alya’s?” he asked, dreading the answer.

“Yes,” said Nino. “Ella and Etta are sick and Alya had to look after them. So I volunteered to keep her company.”

“I see, very nice of you.” He couldn’t help sounding disappointed.

“What’s wrong,  _ mec _ ? You sound groggy. And grumpy.”

Adrien sighed. “I’m ok. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He sighed again. “I just was at home all day and wanted a chat, that’s all. Don’t worry.”

“Oh,  _ mec _ , you know we can talk at any time? If you need to chat, just stay on the line. If Alya wakes up, I’ll tell her to go to bed.”

“Nah, don’t worry, I’m good. Talk to you tomorrow, sleep well.”

“You too,  _ mec _ .”

When the phone hung up, Adrien let out a loud sigh, as Plagg came out of his shirt and said, “Not much luck, huh?”

“Nope. I thought I could ask him if I could stay at his place for a few days, but… the twins are ill and he’s at Alya’s. My presence would be an inconvenience, I’m afraid.”

“What about Pigtails?” asked Plagg emerging from behind Adrien’s back, a slice of Camembert in his paws. “Maybe she could help you.”

“You mean Marinette? Her parents wouldn’t be happy that a boy snuck into her room, right?”

“I’m sure they have a sofa in their sitting room,” said Plagg sternly. “They may even have a guest room somewhere; they have a tall building there at the top of the boulangerie.”

Adrien looked up as he put his coat on. “You know, you’re right. Let’s go there,” he said and picked up his suitcase and backpack. “Claws out,” he said and he was off in the night.

* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Hello again!**

**Hope you liked chapter 2. I know what you’ll think, “Yet another story where Adrien finds out and runs to Marinette”. Well, I have read quite a few of them, and I love them to bits, but… In the best possible way, nope. Why? What will happen? You’ll find out next week! I will only say that the Calvary of our poor Sunshine child has only started. Yes, it gets worse. Sorry not sorry. Please leave me a review, I love reading your comments!**

**In the next chapter, “Aaron O’Neill”:**

**— “I told you to go see Pigtails, gamin. Or go back home. Or go to your friend Chloé. But no, you’re stubborn.”**

**— “My mother is dead sir, and I don’t want to go home to my father. It’s… complicated.”**

**— “I don’t want any trouble here, so if your father tries to sue us for this, I swear to God I’ll haunt you in your sleep forever from my grave.”**

**Last but not least, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server,** [ **Miraculous Fanworks** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **(for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you next week here with chapter 3!**


	3. Aaron O'Neill

When he arrived close to Marinette’s boulangerie and hid into an alley to detransform, he felt light-headed and dizzy. The tablets that the Gorilla had given him had taken away a bit of cotton inside his head, but he still didn’t feel his best. He opened up the neck of his coat to allow Plagg to fly inside, and he heard his furry friend moan happily, undoubtedly because he had found the slice of Camembert that he had put into the inside pocket of his shirt. 

He looked at his watch and cringed. It was nearly 9 pm; Marinette’s boulangerie was going to close soon. He had to hurry, if he wanted to walk in through the shop’s front door. He shivered into the blue scarf he had put around his neck and started moving hastily; in just a few seconds he was there. 

But as he stepped in front of the door and put his hand on the handle, he saw Marinette talking to Luka. The boy was standing on the customer’s side of the shop and Marinette on the other side, but they seemed to be engaged in a really nice conversation and were both laughing. When the girl looked at the blue haired boy, her gaze had such a soft gleam in it that Adrien stopped in his tracks. Reluctantly, he turned around and stepped off the step to get into the boulangerie, rubbed his hands together and after a last languid glance at the raven-haired girl with pigtails, he grabbed his suitcase and walked away.

“What happened?” asked Plagg emerging from his hiding spot inside Adrien’s coat. 

Adrien sighed. “She was happy, and Luka was there. I had no right to ruin her evening and upset her with my problems.”

“ _ Gamin _ , believe me, you  _ want _ to go to Pigtails and talk to her. Please. Who else have you got? Are we going back home?” Plagg’s ears were again flat on his head as Adrien’s frame was shaken by a new fit of coughs. 

“I will be okay.” He coughed some more. “I just need to find shelter. Let’s look for a hostel, shall we?”

“A  _ hostel _ ? What about the Grand Paris where your friend Chloé lives?” asked the small black cat. 

Adrien sighed again. “If I go to Chloé, she will make me go home. Either her, or her father will. No, I can’t reach out to her, I need to sort myself out on my own.”

Plagg commented again on his stubbornness and returned to hide inside his coat. Adrien rolled his eyes and started walking aimlessly around the streets of Paris, looking around to try and find a place to spend the night. He entered quite a few hostels, but as soon as the people at the reception desk saw his ID and were told that he didn’t have a letter from his father to say that he could stay, they refused him a bed even if they had space. 

“Sorry, can’t risk our business for a kid running away from home!” said one of them. Adrien thanked them and carried on looking, getting more discouraged and desperate each time. 

“I told you to go see Pigtails,  _ gamin _ . Or go back home. Or go to your friend Chloé. But no, you’re stubborn. I can feel your body temperature rising, Adrien, it’s not good. You can’t stay much longer in the cold.” Adrien slumped his shoulders at the kwami’s remark and sat down at the bench of a bus stop. He knew that Plagg was right. 

He now knew that a teenager like him couldn’t be accepted into a hostel without parental consent. Or at least, this was the excuse the receptionists at the hostels had given to him. He had his suspicions that his name and surname were also a big part of the reason for their refusal. So was the possibility of a lawsuit waiting for them the following week. But there was nothing he could do about it. In addition to that, none of his friends could help him and the weather was getting colder. The humidity was filtering into his bones and he could feel deep shivers running down his spine. He was getting worse, and he knew that the best thing to do would have been to just go home. 

But as he thought that, a bus stopped in front of the bus stop. The driver gave him a look and said curtly, “What’s the story (1), lad? Hop in, don’t faff about (2).”

Adrien thought about it for a second and then gave the man a small smile. Of course. Sitting in a bus would be warmer than walking on the road. He stepped on the bus and asked the driver, “Can I have a ticket?”

The man gave him a funny look and said, “Two euro, please.” He picked up a small carnet of tickets he had at the side of his seat and detached one, which he gave him in exchange for a two euro coin, and closed the bus’ doors. “There. Don’t forget to validate yer ticket, the machine is right behind me.” Adrien moved his gaze to behind the driver’s cubicle and found a machine, which he used to validate his ticket. The man smiled and continued, “Grand. Now take a seat. It’s _baltic_ (3) out there.”

Adrien muttered a thank you and went to sit down at the very back of the long bus. He didn’t even look where the bus was going, he just sat there staring into nothing for a while, his suitcase and backpack next to him. 

“At least here it’s warmer,” whispered Plagg, his black little face emerging from the neck of Adrien’s coat, loosely covered by his scarf. Adrien tried to reply, but his frame was shaken by a long fit of coughs. “You really don’t sound right,  _ gamin _ . You need to find shelter and fast, or you may catch pneumonia.”

“I’ve already found shelter,” he said, causing more coughs to erupt from his chest. 

Plagg glared at him. “You’re joking, right? A bus isn’t the place for you to spend the night. First of all, the line will end at some point.”

As if he called for it, the bus came to a halt after reaching the Musée d’Orsay. “This is the end of the line, lad,” shouted the driver emerging from his seat and looking at him. “Where are ya going, exactly?”

“Can I have another ticket sir? Please!” asked Adrien, giving him a pleading look. His face was slightly covered by his scarf and the hoodie of his coat, so Adrien was pretty sure that it would be hard for anyone to recognise him. His voice was so groggy that even the most die-hard fan wouldn’t have known it was him by just listening to it. 

“You got a bad dose, me lad (4),” said the man with a frown, still quite loudly to allow Adrien to hear him. “I’ll give you another ticket, but I don’t like this. You’re a chiseler (5) the age of me son, from the look of ya. I don’t like a youngful like yerself to be out this late, riding buses.” As he said that, the man stretched to pick another ticket from the carnet near his seat, validated it at the front and walked towards him. He gave Adrien the ticket and took a second coin of two euro from his hand. “We’ll go in ten minutes. Just the time for a fag (6).”

Adrien looked at the man getting off the bus and sighed. The man must have been in his fifties, pale skin adorned with freckles, a red nose, and shiny blue eyes. Adrien couldn’t see his hair, as the man wore a thick woollen hat (which Adrien doubted was part of his uniform, but it was bitter cold outside, so he didn’t blame the driver for having thought about his health). He had a feeling it may have been red. The man wore a black jacket covered with a high visibility overcoat, a white shirt underneath the jacket and black trousers. He seemed to be coughing here and there, the kind of cough that comes deep from your lungs and mostly affects smokers. 

There was no getting away with it. Adrien knew that the driver wouldn’t let him stay on the bus all night. He would need to keep hopping on and off different buses, so that the drivers wouldn’t get too suspicious of him. He checked his wallet and saw that he had only another two euro coins and around five one euro coins. Not enough to spend the night going around buses, but maybe he could look for a place where he could buy a Navigo pass. He had spent a few minutes messing with his phone while the bus was running and had learned that such a pass would be the best way to travel all night on the bus without running out of money. 

The boy watched the man just outside the bus, as he lit a cigarette and spent some time looking at his phone and having a smoke. Then, he hopped again on the bus and restarted his tour. 

The bus went all the line down once more, and then back at the Musée d’Orsay again. Adrien stared at his last 2 euro coin as the man emerged from his seat and sighed heavily.

“Look, chicken. Do you think I came up the Liffey (7) in a bubble? How old are ya? Where d’you live?”

“I’m sixteen, sir,” said Adrien, deciding to be truthful. It was odd how a complete stranger was showing him much more empathy in just a quick conversation than his father had had towards him in the last three years. He blushed. “I tried to find shelter for the night, but no hostel wants to give me a bed, so I thought—”

“Yer mad as a box of frogs. Where are yer oul fella an’ wan (8)?” asked the man interrupting him. But he must have noticed Adrien’s perplexed expression, because he sighed and added, “Jaysus, lad, your  _ parents _ !” 

“My mother is dead sir, and I don’t want to go home to my father. It’s…  _ complicated _ .” He blushed more. He couldn’t tell a stranger that his father was Hawkmoth, or that his mother was sleeping in a coffin underneath his house. 

“Look, me lad. I dunno what yer oul fella’s done to you, but I’m goin’ home now. I need to close the bus until mornin’. Ye can’t stay ‘ere.” He gave him a worried look and squeezed his own eyelids with his index and thumb. “I don’t  _ wanna _ leave ya out ‘ere either. Ya friggin’ dunno yer arse from yer elbow (9).” He looked at him, and then at his suitcase and backpack, then at him again. 

“I’ll be okay, sir,” said Adrien trying to stand up, but as he did so, his head went dizzy and he staggered a bit before finding his balance again. 

“Of course, dowtcha kid(10),” the man deadpanned and sighed loudly. “Look, the cousin of a dear friend of mine runs a hostel. It’s not the Grand Paris. But it’s not far and even a kip (11) is better than being out in the cold. I can put a word for ya and I’m sure she’ll let you stay. I’ve known her for Donkey’s years (12)!”

Adrien’s eyes widened. “Would you do this for me, sir? Thank you!” He grabbed his hand in a thankful gesture and the man winced. 

“Janey Mack (13), yer hands are freezing.” He put a hand on his forehead and winced some more. “And you’re boiling. Ya definitely need shelter. Follow me.” That said, the man took Adrien’s backpack, put it on his own shoulder, and grabbed the boy’s suitcase. Then he turned around and gave him an expectant look. “Well? Are ya coming?”

“ _ Gamin _ , I would be careful if I were you,” whispered Plagg into his ear. “This man is too nice, I don’t trust him. If he dares touch a hair on your head, I’ll Cataclysm the hell out of him!”

Adrien thought about it for a fraction of a second, but what other choice did he have? Carry on walking around in the cold? He patted his black friend on the head and concentrated putting a foot after another, following the man out of the bus. He watched, as the man closed the doors of the vehicle and performed his last checks, and then let him lead the way and followed.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Luckily for Adrien, the man was true to his word and Plagg’s worries ended up being unfounded. He walked quite fast, which made it a bit hard for Adrien to follow due to his current dizziness. Adrien still managed to keep up with him, though, because the man stopped from time to time, turned around and waited for him. They went through so many different alleys that Adrien had lost count and didn’t understand where he was anymore. But finally, they stopped in front of the door of what looked like a small hostel. The sign at the top of the door said, ‘Paradis’. Uh… it didn’t really look like paradise, but it would do, as long as they took him in.

When they walked through the door and stepped at the reception desk, the lady behind the counter gave the man a warm smile. She was a tall woman, maybe in her early thirties, with blonde hair combed in a bun at her nape, small glasses that reminded him of Mlle. Mendeleiev back at Collège, brownish-green eyes and a long nose. 

“Hey, Sean, good evening,” she said, taking her eyes off the book she was reading only for a second to give him and Adrien a quick glance.

“Howya, Lucie, what’s the craic (14)?” he said. He placed Adrien’s backpack and suitcase on the ground near the boy and then continued, “I may be a blackguard here, but… Have ya got room for this youngful?”

“That depends,” said the woman, pinning her elbows on the desk and resting her chin on the back of her hands. “Has he got an ID? How old is he? Has he got parental consent?”

Adrien’s eyes lost all light when she said that. He made to pick up his backpack to leave, but the man stopped him and banged his fist on the counter, next to the woman. “I’m  _ scarlet  _ for ya (15), Lucie! I’m losing me rag (16). I mean, look! The state of him!”

She sighed and stood from her seat, coming out into the lobby and giving Adrien a good look. “I  _ am  _ looking at him. That’s why I’m asking for an ID. He doesn’t look any older than 16. He could barely pass for 17.”

_ Wow, she’s good _ , thought Adrien. He sighed and searched into his backpack for his ID, which he gave dutifully to the receptionist. When she looked at it, her eyes widened. “Oh.” Her gaze darted from the ID to his face and back to the ID. “How do you know one like him, Sean?” She turned the ID to the man’s face and showed it to him. The man gasped before scratching the stubble of the 5 o’clock shadow on his chin with his right hand. 

He turned the ID around and put it back into Adrien’s bag. “He’s me…  _ nephew _ , Lucie.” He winked. “Don’t be a gobshite (17), come on. I’ll get you a jar (18) this weekend.”

“But I only have free beds in rooms of 6,” she mused. “Would that be all right? It’s thirty euro for the night.” She eyed Adrien with concern.

“I’ll take it, thank you,” he said. As a matter of fact, after the evening that he had, a bed in a room of six sounded richer than a suite at the Grand Paris. He took his wallet out of his pocket and fiddled with it trying to take out his card, which he presented to the lady. She raised an eyebrow and gave him a look, adjusting her glasses on her nose like Nathalie did when she was annoyed. What had he done wrong?

“I’m not taking that,” she deadpanned.

Adrien gasped. Of course, the woman was right. Plagg had pointed it out too earlier, he really shouldn’t use his card. He looked at how much cash he had in his wallet and luckily he still had some money. He took out three 10 Euro banknotes, which he gave to the lady called Lucie. She picked the bills from his hand and then gave him another look from behind her glasses. 

“Okay, I’ll call you  _ Aaron _ , so it doesn’t raise suspicions, okay?” Adrien nodded. “I don’t want any trouble here, so if your  _ father  _ tries to sue us for this, I swear to God I’ll haunt you in your sleep forever from my grave.”

Adrien gulped. “Uh, no I don’t think it will happen.”

“Very good, Aaron. Keep that in mind.” She quickly filled out some paperwork, from which he resulted as Aaron O’Neill (which must be the surname of the man the woman called Sean. Somehow that didn’t surprise Adrien. The man  _ did  _ have a strong accent, maybe English or Irish, so it did make sense). She ticked the box of parental consent, asking the man to sign. Sean took his passport out of the back pocket of his trousers and jotted down the details. Adrien couldn’t believe that someone would do such a thing for a complete stranger. 

“Good. Now before I give you your key, maybe it would be better if you gave me your valuables, Aaron. God forbid that someone steals from you. I can keep everything locked in my office and give it back to you tomorrow.”

“I didn’t think hostels offered this service, Lucie,” said Sean. The woman gave him a hard smile, a gleam of amusement in her brownish-green eyes.

“We  _ don’t  _ usually, no. But I can make an exception in this case, you know. Because he’s your  _ nephew _ .” She winked at the man. 

Plagg started moving frantically inside Adrien’s coat and Adrien had a feeling that he knew why. “I’d much rather keep my bags with me, thanks,” he said, trying to put his backpack back on his right shoulder. 

The receptionist moved closer to his ear and whispered, “I won’t steal anything from you, promise. I’m really concerned about security here. I don’t want a lawsuit to ring me next week. It’s more for  _ my  _ safety than for yours. Also,” she added, quickly glancing towards the bus driver, “Sean is a friend. You can trust me on this,  _ Aaron _ . Your valuables will be much safer in my office. You’ll get them back in the morning.”

“Okay…” he deadpanned, while Plagg shifted even more awkwardly inside his coat. “My ring stays with me. I'll leave you the rest.”

“As you please,” she said, shrugging at his remark. 

Adrien looked inside his bag and took out his wallet, his ID card and passport (the only things he thought could be at risk of being stolen) and gave them to the lady. She put them into a little bag, stuck a post-it note with number 38 written on it (Adrien supposed that it was the number of his bed, or of his room maybe) and brought it inside her office.

“I’ll leave ya ‘ere, lad. Good luck and take care.” Sean offered him his hand to shake, but Adrien gave him a massive hug. 

“Thank you, sir!” 

“Yer grand, lad. I know ya, yer the age of me son. I’m glad I brought ya ‘ere.” That said, the man waved bye to him and then looked at Lucie and added, “I’ll use the jacks (19) before I go.”

“He has a big heart,” said Lucie, as Sean marched towards a door marked, ‘Toilettes’ on the far side of the ground floor hall. Then she turned to Adrien and signaled to him to pick up his bags. “Take that corridor and then the stairs to the first floor. That’s where the room with your bed is.” Then she wrinkled her nose. “You may want to take a shower before bed, you stink like smelly cheese.”

Adrien blushed and hid his face inside his coat. The culprit of the offending smell sniggered from what felt like the inside pocket of his shirt. Adrien groaned—fantastic. Just what he needed. He thanked the woman and proceeded in the direction she had shown to him until he found the stairs, and then went upstairs and looked for his room. 

When he had settled by his bed, he gave himself a sniff and realised that the woman was right, he did stink. Bloody Plagg and his Camembert! He proceeded to pick a change of clothes and his shower gel from his bag and went looking for the bathroom. However, as soon as he stepped a foot in it, he felt ready to puke. Not only was the stench coming from the toilets almost unbearable, but the shower… uh, how could he describe it? He had never seen anything as disgusting before. The walls were covered with stains of hardened blood (probably caused by people killing mosquitoes against it by the look of it) and on the floor, right near the drain, was something that looked suspiciously like a massive bush of black hair. Adrien stepped cautiously out of the shower, then out of the bathroom, and returned to his bed. He decided that the stench of Camembert was much more enticing than taking a shower in  _ that _ . 

The people who owned the other beds were already fast asleep, so Adrien put his change of clothes back into the suitcase, folded his scarf on them and his coat on top of it and slipped into bed with his clothes on, having removed only his overshirt. He didn’t feel right taking his clothes off in there. He was starting to understand why the woman had insisted that he leave his valuables locked in the office. It was weird to be in a room with 5 other people that he didn't know; he didn’t feel very safe.

He started tossing and turning in bed. The fact that his temperature was going up didn’t help, nor did the fact that a couple of the men in the room were snoring. 

“I did say that it was better to go and see Pigtails, didn’t I?” muttered Plagg from his hidden space on the mattress right at the bottom of Adrien’s pillow. Adrien groaned when someone let out another loud noise and covered his ears with his pillow. He was starting to sweat but his hands and feet were as cold as ice. He could feel the shivers running down his spine and his head was filling with cotton. His nose was a mess, stuffed in one nostril and too open and dry in the other, making it almost painful to breathe. He could feel his breathing getting laboured as something heavy started building into his lungs. 

He tried sniffling through the stuffed nostril, but no air came through, so he went out of bed and into the bathroom again, looking for a piece of tissue to blow his nose. Ugh. Even with a stuffy nostril the stench was unbearable. He quickly blew his nose, flushed the paper in the toilet and washed his hands, but as he went back to bed he realised that it hadn’t made any difference. His nostril was closed again as soon as his head hit his pillow. 

He whimpered, and as he did that, he was caught into a fit of coughs, which he tried to muffle into his pillow. 

“I want to sleep!” muttered someone from over his head. Shoot. His trick hadn’t worked. He sniffled again with no result and turned around to the other side, as sometimes that worked to take the stuffiness out of his nose. 

Damn it, it didn’t work. One nostril opened up and the other filled in. Argh! In addition to that, another person started complaining because one of the men on the right was snoring so loudly that he had woken up. Adrien sucked his breath in, and his frame was shaken by another fit of coughs, so sudden that he didn’t manage to hide them in his pillow. 

Eventually, he fell into a restless sleep and kept tossing and turning. Plagg moved from the mattress and floated on his head, giving him a worried look. Adrien wasn’t well at all. Now that he slept, he moved even more and the heat emanating from his face was so strong that Plagg could feel it even without having to touch him. 

“ _ Maman _ ,” Adrien suddenly cried and a loud moan came out of his throat, followed by another series of coughs. “Please no! My Lady, no!”

“Shut up!” “We want to sleep!” came two voices from the top of Adrien’s bed. “Right when one stops snoring one starts talking. SHUT UP!” 

But Adrien couldn’t hear them. Plagg tried to wake his holder up, because he seemed to be having a nightmare, or be delirious, but wasn't successful. Eventually all five men in the room were awake and complaining. One came down from the bed just over Adrien’s head and gave him a look, which caused Plagg to hide. 

“The kid seems sick,” the man said. “I’m going to the Reception to complain. They shouldn’t allow sick people in the dormitories.” He put a hand on Adrien’s forehead and took it off quickly, shaking it as if he had gotten burned. “Bloody hell, the kid is  _ really _ sick.” 

Plagg glared at the grumpy man from his hiding place. Luckily he had only touched Adrien’s forehead for a second, because Plagg had a paw ready behind Adrien’s back and would have happily Cataclysmed anyone who would have dared harm his holder. Adrien turned around again and the man who had touched his forehead started walking towards the door. 

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he said. 

The other men went back to bed, so Plagg came out of his hiding place and started looking around, full of worry. He didn’t know what to do. Adrien needed rest and warmth, and these people were trying to get him kicked out. He wanted Tikki. He had never before felt he needed her help as much as he did now. Her help, and that of the Guardian. But how could he leave Adrien alone? Then, Adrien screamed again, and another man who slept at his right went out of bed as well. 

“This isn’t fair, we can’t sleep,” he said. “I’m also going to the Reception.”

Plagg’s ears were flat on his head. Adrien didn’t seem in immediate danger, but in the condition he was, Plagg knew that he wouldn’t have coped well, out in the freezing cold. Reluctantly, he parted from his holder’s head and gave him a soft pat on his hair before zipping, unseen, out of the window. 

He flew high and looked around, trying to find a couple of reference points, then zoomed towards Notre Dame. Luckily he could see it, not too far in the distance. It wouldn’t take too long for Pigtails to rescue him. 

“Hold on,  _ gamin _ . I’ll get help.”

* * *

_ Glossary: _

  1. _What’s the story? = Irish expression for Hello_
  2. Don’t faff about = don't waste my time
  3. Baltic = Irish slang for Freezing
  4. You’ve got a bad dose = You’re very sick
  5. Chiseler = kid
  6. Fag = sigarette
  7. Do you think I came up the Liffey in a bubble = Irish slang meaning “Do you think I was born yesterday?” The Liffey is the river that crosses Dublin (like la Seine crosses Paris)
  8. Oul fella and wan = your mum and dad
  9. You dunno yer arse from yer elbow = you’re confused
  10. dowtcha kid = I don’t doubt you, kid (Irish slang)
  11. Kip = not a very nice place
  12. Donkey’s years = forever
  13. Janey Mack = Used in Ireland as a euphemism for Jesus Christ, to avoid taking his name in vain
  14. What’s the craic? = Irish for what’s up? what is happening in your life since last we met. 
  15. I’m scarlet for ya = I’m not impressed with you (again, guess what? Irish slang ;))
  16. Lose me rag = lose my temper
  17. Gobshite = jerk
  18. Get you a jar = buy you a drink (Irish slang)
  19. Jacks = toilets



* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Hello again!**

**Hope you liked chapter 3. Sorry but… I’m not sorry! I know, poor Adrien is going through hell.**

**Some of the things that happened to him in this chapter are actually autobiographical. I wasn’t sick, and I wasn’t a teen ager with no parental consent, but I found myself in a very similar situation, not finding shelter and sitting down in a bus for three or four runs trying to stay in it overnight because I didn't have a place to go to (eventually I too found shelter, don’t worry, after all, I survived and am here to write about it! ^^). Yes, even that shower was autobiographical. That’s actually the description of the state of a real shower I found in a hostel in London. *UGH* It wasn’t pleasant! I must admit that I too kept my dirt, exactly like Adrien did.**

**Next chapter is really important because he will reach his lowest point, poor thing. But he will find luck in his bad luck. What will happen? You’ll find out next week, keep following and please leave me a review, I love reading your comments!**

**In the next chapter, “Plagg to the Rescue!”:**

**— “Pigtails, he would do it for you in a heartbeat.”**

**— “Isn’t he the one on all those billboards around town?”**

**— “You have to face his real** **_face_ ** **eventually.”**

**Last but not least, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server,** [ **Miraculous Fanworks** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **(for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you next week here with chapter 4!**


	4. Plagg to the Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: one scene in this chapter has a one line hint to possible sexual harassment.

Marinette opened her eyes and her gaze met with darkness. Clouds had covered the moon and no light filtered through her skylight door. She blinked, wondering what had caused her to wake up. She sat up and looked around, but whether she kept her eyes open or not, the place was still in complete darkness. 

Suddenly, she felt something moving near her face and jumped out of her skin when the something spoke. “Pigtails! Pigtails, I need help. *BURP* needs help! Please!”

After regaining control of the mad beating of her heart, Marinette fumbled on her bedside, looking for the switch of her bed lamp. As soon as she got used to the light, she darted her gaze around until she met Plagg’s electric green eyes. 

“What’s wrong, Plagg?” she said, immediately echoed by Tikki’s voice. The red kwami zipped near Plagg and looked at him with a frown of concern. 

“Why didn’t you come to the Eiffel Tower, Pigtails? He waited for you for ages!”

“Eiffel Tower? It wasn’t a patrol night, was it? Is there an akuma? Why aren’t you with Chat? What’s going on?” Marinette was starting to panic. Plagg had never come to wake her up in the middle of the night. If Plagg was here, Chat Noir must be in danger. But why didn’t she get an akuma alert? What was going on?

“No, it’s not an akuma. Hawkmoth isn’t even in the country now, he can’t send akumas from Tibet!” Plagg folded his paws on his chest and glared at her, but Marinette met his annoyed gaze with surprise. 

“What are you talking about, Plagg? How do you know Hawkmoth’s whereabouts? Where’s Chat Noir?” asked Marinette at the same time as Tikki said, “Do you know something we don’t, Plagg?”

The little black cat’s ears went flat on his head. “I would have preferred that my _gamin_ told you about this, Pigtails. He sent you a message on the communicator and he waited for you for a very long time at the top of the Tower.”

Marinette gasped. “I didn’t transform today, Plagg. I told him I was busy all day helping my parents. Why don’t you start from the beginning? I’m confused!”

“There’s no time to explain, Pigtails. You just need to know a couple of head ups. Hawkmoth is Chat Noir’s father.” Marinette’s eyes widened in shock as a loud gasp came out of her throat. 

“What?!”

“Yep. That’s what my _gamin_ wanted to talk to you about. We found his lair today and his mother in a coffin underneath his home. He’s run away, Pigtails. He’s sick, couldn’t find shelter. He’s in a hostel now, unconscious and the other people in the room want to kick him out because he speaks in his sleep. You must help him!”

“Oh my…” said Tikki in a choked whisper. 

Marinette’s heart was racing in her chest. She couldn’t leave Chat Noir in danger. But if Plagg was here, it meant that her partner wasn’t transformed. Of course, he couldn’t be transformed if he was sleeping in a hostel with other people. If she went to help him, she would see who he was. 

“But his identity…” she asked, more to herself than to anybody else. 

Plagg rushed to grab her nose and stared into her eyes with his magnetic green ones. “Did you _hear_ what I said Pigtails? Have you got problems with your hearing? Hawkmoth is his _FATHER_ . Do you understand? His **_FATHER_ ** . My _gamin_ would need to tell you who he is anyway. You MUST help him. Please! It may already be late!”

Marinette exchanged a look with Tikki. “Plagg’s right, Marinette. Chat Noir’s safety should be our first concern. If we know who Hawkmoth is, the problem of identities becomes less crucial.”

“Pigtails, he would do it for you in a heartbeat.”

What Plagg had just said really hit Marinette hard. Her eyes filled with tears because she knew, she just _knew_ that Plagg was right. Her chaton would definitely have forgotten all worries about secret identities, had he known that she was in trouble. She couldn’t leave him in danger. She _had_ to do something.

“Tikki, spots on!” she whispered and as the pink light ran through her body, she stood from her bed and took her yoyo from her side. “Plagg, lead the way!” She opened her skylight door and came out of it, as Plagg breathed a sigh of relief and flew hastily in the darkness.

oOoOoOoOoOo

It only took them a couple of minutes to land at the top of the building that contained the hostel. ‘ _Paradis…’_ Ladybug groaned. From Plagg’s description a better name for the place would have been _Enfer_ , but never mind. She used her yoyo to lower herself to the height of the window that Plagg recognised as the one that contained Chat Noir’s bed and she secured herself on the gutter, in a way that she wouldn’t be seen but could see what happened inside. 

Five men and a woman were standing in the centre of the room, and were saying things that Ladybug couldn’t hear. The blonde woman seemed to be discussing animatedly with the men and one of them approached a bed in the corner and pushed the person sleeping on it on the shoulder. 

“I can’t hear a word! Is that his bed?” she asked Plagg, pointing at the bed where the man had approached. The black kwami nodded, and zipped through the window, pushing on the handle and opening a small crack. Then he flew out again. 

“I said it and I’ll repeat it now. The boy has paid the same price as you all. He’ll _stay_ ,” the woman was saying. She folded her arms on her waist and started tapping the tip of her foot on the floor. 

“But we can’t sleep!” protested one of the men. The woman rolled her eyes.

“You can change rooms if you wish. I won't throw someone who's barely the age of my little brother out in the freezing cold, especially if he's sick. And besides,” she added as she looked with nonchalance at her nails. “I’m sure that you all do things that can keep the others awake. For example snoring. I will offer only once: I do have a few empty beds, you’re in luck.”

That said, the woman marched out of the room, and then turned around to look at the few men who had been discussing with her. “So? Are you coming?” She held the door open, as three out of five followed her immediately. 

“I need a few minutes to pack up,” said one that was left. 

“Yes, so do I,” said the other.

The woman sighed and said before closing the door, “Okay. When you’re ready, come at the Reception; I’ll exchange your keys.”

The men watched as the door closed and then, under Ladybug’s watchful gaze, took a couple of minutes to gather their belongings. 

“Come on, go away!” hissed Ladybug under her breath. All she wanted was for them to get out of the room so that she could open the window and get inside. 

But the men didn’t get out of the room. In fact, they looked at each other and a creepy sneer formed on their lips, giving them a sinister look that froze Ladybug’s blood right in her veins.

“Not much older than her little brother, eh?” one of them said, and cackled. 

The other one approached Chat’s bed and pulled the blanket away from him, giving the boy a good look. “He’s so _pretty_ , too. Isn’t he the one on all those billboards around town?”

The first man grabbed the hand where Chat wore his Miraculous and cackled again. “Nice ring. He won’t miss it when he wakes up.”

“He woke us up, after all. We can have a little _fun_ before going back to bed.”

“No-one will know,” was the comment of the other as he put his hands on the belt of his trousers.

Ladybug froze on the spot, a growing sense of anger shaking her frame. If those bastards thought that they could take advantage of her minou when he was at his most vulnerable, they could think again. She grabbed her yoyo when the man touched Chat’s hand, and she heard Plagg hissing loudly at her side. She opened the window a little better and popped her yoyo inside, using it to bump one of the two men on the head. Then she moved again and hid, eyeing the bed where Chat Noir slept with growing concern. 

“OUCH! Whatddaya think you’re doing?” The man she just hit scowled at the other and put his hands on the now tender spot on his head. He hit the other man with a punch on the nape.

“Hey! I’ve done nothing! How dare you hit me in the head?” The other man put down Chat Noir’s hand and massaged awkwardly the spot that his companion had hit.

“You hit me in the head first!” said the first man. 

A cunning smirk curled Ladybug’s lips as she exchanged a knowing look with Plagg. The little God of Destruction went through the glass and picked the backpack of one of the men, making it flow in the air. The two men gasped.

“That’s what you get for being jeeeeeeerks…” muttered Plagg behind the backpack. The two men uttered a loud scream in unison, while the owner of the backpack jolted around trying to catch his bag. 

Ladybug took this as a cue to open the window wide and jump inside the room. When she landed on the floor next to the now terrified men, Plagg let the backpack fall at the top of its owner’s head.

“Ouch!” said the man scornfully as the other muttered, “Ladybug?”

She got up from the crouched position she had landed on the floor, standing tall on the carpet that covered the floor of the room, her fists clenched, her eyes shining in anger. 

“You touch a hair on his head and you’ll regret it for the rest of your lives,” she roared. 

One of the two men lost his terrified look and sneered again. “And what would a little girl like you do?” He cackled. “We’re not akumas, you know.”

As he heard his companion say that, the other cackled once more. “Who’s the kid? Your boyfriend or something?”

The first man cackled at the remark. “Maybe he’s Chat Noir…” They both cackled. Ladybug’s fists clenched in pure and utter fury. 

“GET OUT!” she roared. “GET OUT BEFORE I KILL YOU STONE DEAD!”

“And what hero would do something like that to two harmless civilians?” But he had just said that, that they heard a loud hiss and someone spell out, “CATACLYSM!” In an instant, the bag containing the belongings of one of the men was reduced in powder as a livid Plagg appeared behind it. 

The little God zipped in front of the second man, the one who had dared touch the hand where Chat wore his ring, a devilish expression in his electric green eyes. “Ladybug has some _morals_ , but I don’t, I’m not human,” he hissed. “Piss off, before your face follows the same fate as your friend’s bag! PISS OFF, I SAID!!!”

All blood drained from the two delinquents’ faces as the one who still owned a bag grabbed it and ran out of the door screaming and tripping on his own feet. The other one waited a bit longer, darting his gaze between Ladybug’s killer glare and Plagg’s demonic smirk. 

“Boo!” said Plagg and the man screamed again, turned around and ran for his life.

oOoOoOoOoOo 

It took Ladybug a couple of minutes to recover enough to stop shaking like a leaf. She shot an angry glare to Plagg.

“You shouldn’t have intervened, Plagg. You should have left them to me,” she hissed. 

Plagg glared back. “They dared touch his _hand_ . They dared try to steal his _Miraculous_ . The Dinosaurs and Atlantis have fallen for less, Pigtails!” Ladybug looked at the tiny God, surprised at the hollow tone of his voice. Usually Plagg was cheerful and funny. She had never heard him so serious. So _deadly_ serious. For the first time since she knew him, she realised that the one talking to her was the God of Destruction. She shuddered.

She turned towards Chat’s bed and took a longing look to the blond mop of hair, which didn’t seem as dishevelled now outside of the transformation, even in the state he was currently in. She fell on her knees near his bed. The boy was covered by thick blankets and was turned around towards the wall, so Ladybug couldn’t see him in the face. But she was very aware that he was there, that he wasn’t transformed, and that he was sick. The heat emanating from his body was causing her to sweat even at a distance. 

She leaned closer and put a gloved hand on his forehead, taking it out immediately and waving it to cool it down. “God, he’s so hot!” she muttered to herself, her voice cracking. Her already watery eyes filled with tears as she had a good look at the dormitory he was sleeping in, nearly dumped in a corner like an old rag. He, her funny, goofy and amazing partner, always ready to sacrifice his life for her and for Paris, always ready to lighten the mood cracking a joke. 

She grabbed his hand, the same one that the man had touched, infuriating Plagg, the hand that wore his Miraculous (now a silver ring in camouflage. Where had she seen that hand, and that ring before? It looked so familiar!). His hand was icy cold. She heard his breathing and realised how laboured it was, and as her hand moved to pat gently on his now soaking hair, she heard him cough loudly a couple of times. Then again, and again, until his whole body was shaken by a massive fit of coughs. She saw a shirt near the bed, by his backpack, and picked it up. Why did it look familiar too? She stood up in confusion and made to get out of the room. 

“Where are you going, Pigtails?”

“To the bathroom. I want to wet this to put it on his forehead.”

“It’s on the right,” said Plagg.

“What?”

“The bathroom. My _gamin_ didn’t like it.He wanted to take a shower but it was disgusting.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to shower, Plagg, I’m only wetting a shirt.”

The little God looked at her. “I know. But my _gamin_ hated it. The stench was overwhelming. Cover your nose, Pigtails.”

Ladybug smiled. “I will. Thanks for your concern!”

She came back a couple of minutes later, the shirt now wet in her hands. She approached the bed and without looking at the boy, she put the shirt on Chat’s forehead.

“You were right, Plagg, the smell was stomach-turning.” She stroked Chat’s cheek and hair tenderly, and then looked at her hand. It felt so weird to touch the skin on Chat’s face that was usually covered by the mask, and his hair was wet, but gorgeously soft. 

“Maybe… maybe I can try to shake him awake and ask him to transform? So our identities will stay a secret?” Ladybug wondered to herself. She sat down at the edge of Chat’s bed and looked down.

Plagg huffed. “What part of ‘Hawkmoth is his father’ don’t you understand, Pigtails? The second he tells you his father’s name, you _will_ know who he is.”

“You’re right. It’s just—” she muttered, picking nervously at the fingers of one hand with the other and fiddling with them, her heart racing in her chest. “I didn’t want to find out like this. He’s unconscious!”

Plagg glared at her and brought a paw to the tip of her nose. “Sorry to ruin your romantic reveal ideas, but this is real life, Pigtails. You have to _face_ his real face eventually.” He got quiet for a moment. “Uh. I punned. He would have laughed.” The little black cat’s ears went again flat and his eyes darted left and right until he zipped behind his holder’s pillow. 

Ladybug wanted to console him, but somehow, she thought that the proud God of Destruction wouldn’t have liked it. She was sure she had seen the hint of a tear worming its way out of his green eyes, and she didn’t need to ask Tikki to know that Plagg didn’t want anyone to see him cry. 

oOoOoOoOoOo 

“I need to take him away from here,” said Ladybug thoughtfully. “My home will be much more comfortable for him to sleep in and I have Doliprane, cough syrup and a thermometer to check his temperature.” She looked at the suitcase and backpack near his bed. “Is that all he has with him, Plagg?”

“Yes but… there’s a little complication, Pigtails.”

“What complication?”

Plagg sighed. “The Receptionist took his ID, passport and wallet and is holding everything for him under lock and key, in the Office.”

“Never heard of a hostel to do something like that!” said Ladybug. 

“I know. It’s a long story, one that maybe my _gamin_ will tell you later.” 

The girl stayed still and silent for some time, then looked at the blond mop of hair emerging from the blanket and nodded.

“Okay. Spots off,” she whispered softly. In a flash of pink, Marinette took the place of Ladybug and Tikki reappeared, twirling in the air and ending up in Marinette’s hands. The little red kwami looked at her holder with a frown. 

“Why did you release your transformation?” said Tikki, immediately echoed by Plagg. 

Marinette sighed. “I’m going to the Reception. I want to ask the receptionist for a thermometer. It’s pointless to ask for his valuables, since I’m not him, so we will have to spend the night here.”

“You can’t do that,” said Plagg. “The woman will know you’re not a resident!” 

“What can I do then? I don’t particularly want to leave his stuff here!” mused Marinette. Then, her face lit up. “I have an idea. Tikki, can you fly to the boulangerie?”

“I think I can, Marinette. Why?” said the red kwami. 

“I need you to go into the drawer of my desk and get me my thermometer and a box of Doliprane tablets. Do you think you can do that?” Marinette gave Tikki an expectant look, and the little kwami sighed.

“I can certainly do it, Marinette, but it will take me some time and you will be on your own unable to transform!”

“I’m fine. Plagg is here with me and,” she said, eyeing Chat’s finger, “in an emergency, I can take the Cat Miraculous and transform into Lady Noire!”

Tikki sighed again. “Okay, Marinette, I will do it. But I still think it would have been safer to just bring Chat Noir to your home.”

“Don’t worry, Tikki, I will. I just want to get his stuff back.” That said, she gave Tikki such a pleading look that the little kwami sighed once more and zipped away. 

* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Hello again!**

**Hope you liked chapter 4. Sorry for needing a trigger warning in this chapter. That scene was a bit strong, but necessary. Poor Sunshine. He’s really reached his lowest moment here. Luckily his Lady Love was there to help, summoned by his best friend (evenifhewillneveradmititevenundertorture) Plagg. Plagg kicked ass too here ;) I like it when Plagg kicks ass :D**

**Next chapter is also very important. The moment we were all waiting for. I think you’ve got a little idea of what I’m talking about, but… how will it happen? You’ll find out next week, keep following and please leave me a review, I love reading your comments! This story deserves more love :'(**

**In the next chapter, “The Moment of Truth”:**

**— “And Plagg?” The little God of Destruction stopped and turned to look at her. “Thank you. Thank you for looking after Chat Noir and for coming to look for me.”**

**— “I'm sorry, I just didn't want to ruin your time with your boyfriend, M'lady.”**

**— “Oh my God I don’t feel ready for this!”**

**Last but not least, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server,** [ **Miraculous Fanworks** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **(for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you next week here with chapter 5!**


	5. The Moment of Truth

Marinette looked at Tikki flying away and then glanced at the door with growing concern. She didn’t think that anyone would come through it — after all, Chat was on his own now and the other men had all gotten different beds. She was  _ definitely  _ sure that the two she and Plagg had scared away wouldn’t come back. At least, if they valued their life. So the only person who could really come in was the lady at Reception, but she must have other things to worry about than to look after a sick teenager. Yet, Marinette kept looking at the door from time to time. 

“Do you want me to keep guard at the door to ensure the woman doesn’t come back?” said Plagg after Marinette looked at the door for the umpteenth time. 

“That would be helpful. If you see her coming, come back in and we’ll transform and get out of the window.” She saw Plagg nodding and starting to move towards the door. “And Plagg?” The little God of Destruction stopped and turned to look at her. “Thank you. Thank you for looking after Chat Noir and for coming to look for me.”

The little black cat nodded and eyed her with relief as he passed through the door and disappeared.

Marinette sighed and clenched her fists on her thighs, grabbing the material of her pink pyjama bottoms. Bits of the events that had happened since she awoke came back to her mind as she kept eyeing the blond mop of hair of her sick partner. 

_ ‘Isn’t he the one on all those billboards around town?’ _ one of the two men had asked the other.  _ The one on all those billboards. _ She had heard it and she couldn’t unhear it, and now that her thoughts had gone back to it, her heart started racing madly in her chest. Whoever Chat was, his face must have been plastered on billboards all over Paris, so much so that those two men had easily recognised him. 

Her gaze went back to his hair. Blond. Teenager.  _ ‘He’s so pretty’ _ , the man had said. 

Marinette brought a hand to her mouth. That shirt. The one she had gotten wet to put on Chat’s head. That shirt that had looked familiar… and to be honest, if the one hanging on his backpack was his coat, Marinette thought she recognised the coat. And wasn't that the hint of a blue scarf that she could make out underneath his coat?

“Plagg?” called Marinette suddenly. The God of Destruction emerged from the door and looked at her expectantly. “I-I d-do know him, d-don’t I? I m-mean in real life, out of the m-mask.”

The little black cat didn’t say anything, but smirked, causing Marinette’s heart to nearly come out of her throat. She panicked and moved her hand to grab whatever was on her left and felt that she had grabbed his leg from over the blankets, giving it a big squeeze. 

“MY LADY!” shouted Chat Noir suddenly, jumping up in a sitting position, his face nearly colliding with that of Marinette. The girl had no choice other than to be left staring into two grass green orbs that she knew way too well. Her heart stopped as the last of the blood drained from her face.

“Adrien?” she whispered holding her breath. Her eyes were as big as saucers as she looked at the boy collapsing into bed, this time on his back, his eyes again closed. Even if he had jumped up and had opened his eyes, he hadn't been awake. His sleep was becoming very restless, though. 

_ Shoot _ . 

Adrenaline was pumping into Marinette’s brain and preventing her from going crazy, or she would be freaking out big time from what she had just discovered. But her Ladybug head was forcing her not to panic because there was something even more crucial than the fact that the boy she loved and the partner she had grown to love were one and the same. If  _ Adrien  _ was Chat Noir it meant that Hawkmoth was… “Gabriel Agreste,” she hissed, pursing her lips, her fists shaking in anger. “We once suspected him and he managed to take us off his scent by akumatising himself!” 

No wonder that Chat Noir had been so weird that day and had wondered whether he should accept the truth that Gabriel was Hawkmoth without seeing proof. As much as Gabriel was a tyrant, as much as he had been emotionally abusing his son since his wife had disappeared, he was still Chat’s— _ Adrien’s _ father. Marinette’s eyes filled with tears. 

Then, what Plagg had said earlier on came back to her mind. That they had found Gabriel’s lair that day, and Chat’s mother in a coffin.  _ Adrien’s  _ mother. In a  _ coffin _ . 

_ ‘Oh my God!’ _ Her heart broke for the poor boy. She decided that she would first make sure that Adrien was well, and only then they would discuss what to do about Hawkmoth. It wasn’t fair to worry Adrien and make him feel worse by discussing the fate of his own father while being so sick.

“That bastard,” she said in a choked whisper as her hand grabbed and squeezed something really cold. Her surprise was overwhelming when said something squeezed her hand back.

She turned around to see what she had grabbed and again met the green eyes of the boy she loved. She sucked her breath in, feeling all blood rushing to her face and noting with the corner of her eye that they were holding hands. Oh right. The cold thing was his hand. 

“Ma-Marinette?” Adrien muttered panting hard. “What are you… what am I…” He looked around and as his eyes darted from the beds near his, to the backpack and suitcase resting at the side, the walls, everywhere.  _ Oh yes.  _ The memories of what had happened that very day rushed back to his head now. The lair, the coffin, his mother in it, Hawkmoth was his father, he had run away, he was in a hostel… 

Hang on. 

What was  _ Marinette  _ doing there? And wearing her  _ pyjamas _ ?

He was going to ask more questions when something red zipped around and crashed into Marinette’s lap. Adrien watched in utter amazement as  _ Tikki  _ flew up to Marinette’s face and said, still panting heavily, “I was as fast as I could, Marinette.”

His stunned gaze went to Marinette’s lap, where he saw a thermometer and a box that looked like Doliprane. His heart was beating in his throat, and somehow even in his ears as his mouth gaped open, his gaze darting from Tikki’s exhausted frame to the medicines on Marinette’s lap. When he dared look at Marinette’s face, she was eyeing him shyly. 

“ _ L-ladybug _ ?” he said sucking his breath in. 

Marinette blushed profusely, but didn’t lower her gaze. “Chaton,” she whispered. 

Adrien’s heart skipped a beat. He crashed again onto the mattress and ran a hand through his damp hair. 

Marinette. Was. Ladybug. 

The sudden realisation wormed its way through his cotton filled head and caused his breathing to catch and speed up. A new fit of coughs shook him and he tried to muffle them into his pillow until he felt a cold hand on his head.

“You don’t need to hide, chaton, there’s nobody else in the room,” whispered Marinette softly and she put something hard that beeped into his ear. “Apologies, I only have the thermometer I bought for Manon, but it is very precise and,” she gasped, “Jesus Adrien, 40.2°C!” She pulled him up, forcing him to a sitting down position. 

Plagg flew in front of Marinette and looked at his charge with a massive frown on his face. Then he looked at the young Guardian. “He has a thermos with some water at the side of his backpack, Pigtails.” This caused Marinette to stand up from his bed and grab his backpack, rummaging around it until she found the thermos Plagg was talking about, taking the cup shaped cover off and filling it with water, and then placing it in his hand. 

“I want you to take these two tablets, Chaton. And lie down again after you do that, please.” She kneeled down by his bed and watched as he did as he had been told. Then, she grabbed his hand and looked him straight in the eye.

“Why didn't you come to me?” she asked. “I thought we were friends.”

His eyes filled with tears and his gaze fell. “I called you on the bugphone and waited for you for a long time at the Eiffel Tower today,” he muttered without looking at her. “Then I tried to come to the boulangerie, under Plagg’s suggestion, and now I know why he was suggesting I do it. But you were talking to Luka, and were happy so… I didn’t want to impose.” As he said that, he grabbed the blankets and held them strongly in his fists. He felt his throat closing painfully and knew he was going to cry. And as Marinette’s hands wrapped around his head and pulled him closer to her chest, he didn’t fight the tears, but let them flow freely. 

“You've been silly, Adrien. I would have been delighted to help you. Never do that again, please.”

His head filled even more with cotton, as he sniffled painfully but didn't manage to breathe through his nose. “I'm sorry, I just didn't want to ruin your time with your boyfriend, M'lady.”

Marinette sucked her breath in. “ _ What _ boyfriend?”

He gave her a surprised look. “But I thought…” he started, but as he did so, he breathed a little bit too much air and was shaken by a new fit of coughs. “Damn,” he muttered under his breath. 

Marinette sighed. She was looking at him, but as soon as he looked up to meet her gaze, she lowered it down. “Luka is my friend, Adrien. He loves me and I did try to reciprocate his feelings, but I just couldn’t take my mind away from—”

“—the boy you love,” Adrien finished the sentence for her. Now that he knew who Ladybug was, for some strange reason, saying that she loved someone else had become a thousand times more difficult. He felt a big knot clenching his throat as new tears started coming out of his eyes. He wiped his eyes and cheeks with the back of his hand, hoping that she had failed to see his tears, but a quick glance in her direction made him understand that she had seen them very well. 

“Adrien,” she started, but as their gaze met, she didn’t seem able to continue.

“Who is he?” he spat out eventually. “Now that I know who you are, you can tell me without jeopardising your identity, right? I want to know. If he’s not Luka, then who is he? I’ve never seen you close to anybody else!” 

He cringed at the spiteful tone of his own voice. But he couldn’t help it. Usually he would have been more careful and would have tried to not show how much this was hurting his feelings, because he desperately wanted to at least stay friends with Marinette, with his Lady. But in that precise moment of time, with cotton filling his head, a huge migraine butchering his brain and the typical feeling of dumbness due to high temperature slowing down his thought process, he really couldn’t give a damn. 

Marinette looked at him with her eyes wide. Her cheeks blushed crimson and she immediately lowered her gaze. One of her hands went to her heart and she eyed him a couple of times, as if unsure about what to do. Then she looked at Tikki, who met her gaze with the closest expression Adrien had seen on her to puppy eyes. She also met Plagg’s electric green eyes and Adrien saw the black kwami hold her gaze in what looked like a battle of wills, raise an eyebrow, cross his paws on his chest, and jerked his head a couple of times in his direction. Marinette covered her face with her hands and then looked at Plagg again, but the black kwami’s stern gaze became even more stern, if that was possible. 

What the hell was going on?

Then, he saw Marinette sigh and slump her shoulders, as if she was trying to disappear from the face of Earth. She looked at him again, but not in the eye, her whole face and neck nearly shining in a bright shade of red. 

“The love that I boy… oh I mean, the love boy that I, oh, bother… the  _ boy that I love _ … he… I’ve… Oh God…” She looked up and blushed an even deeper shade of red when her gaze accidentally crossed his. “I’ve loved him for a long time.” Again, she met Plagg’s stern gaze and quickly lowered her own. Tikki flew on the top of her head and started stroking her hair softly. 

How could it be that difficult to tell him a name? Why? He could understand when they faced Glaciator, as she was trying to keep her identity a secret, but now? What difference would it make to her? At least it would give  _ him  _ closure. 

“And…?” he pressed. His heart was racing madly in his chest and his breathing was catching. If she didn’t hurry, he was going to hyperventilate. 

Then he noticed how fast  _ she  _ was breathing and realised that probably the same could be said about her. 

Marinette felt nearly sick. She was trying. Genuinely trying, because Plagg was right, at least in the way he was glaring at her—Adrien deserved to know. “Oh my God I don’t feel ready for this!”

And that’s when Plagg lost it. He completely and utterly lost it. He roared in frustration and zipped to her nose, looking at her right in the eye and pointing a tiny paw to her face. “And when exactly are you going to be ready, Pigtails? In ten minutes? In ten years? You can’t leave him like that. The poor  _ gamin  _ needs to know. How can it be so difficult to say? It’s a three word sentence. Three words. I say it to my cheese all the time. Can you say it or do you need help spelling it out?” Marinette paled and shook her head. “Then  _ say  _ it, or I swear to the Mighty Creator,  _ I _ will say it.”

“Plagg, you can’t do that!” squealed Marinette putting her hands on her mouth.

Plagg gave her a deadly glare. “Try me. You tell him and you tell him now, or  _ I will. _ ” He paused as Marinette took a loud breath in. “I’m fed up with it. I’m fed up of him pining over you as Ladybug, and then you as Marinette, and sighing and blablabla,  _ Plagg, she’s so wonderful, so amazing, so fantastic, I love her so much, why does she love someone else? Do you think I will ever win her heart? What has he got that I haven’t got? _ And then Marinette here, Marinette there, my everyday Ladybug, she’s so amazing, so caring, so.... Whatever.”

“PLAGG!” shouted Adrien before starting to cough again. 

“No,  _ gamin _ . I’ve had enough. You put your health at risk because you didn’t know that this idiot here is—” 

“Enough, Plagg!” shouted Marinette. “I’m feeling already guilty, don’t dig the blade deeper, please, I beg you!” 

Then she clenched her fists around the fabric of her pyjamas and started looking pointedly at something on the wall in front of her, a serious frown on her face. “The boy that I love is… oh God, I don’t deserve him. He’s so sweet and great and I’m here twisting my words every time I try to talk to him and try to tell him how I feel. I’ve loved him for so long, since the day he gave me his umbrella. But I’m so stupid and I’ve never been able to tell him. And when he asked me directly, I tried to deny it and made a massive mess of it.” 

She looked up, her gaze completely lost in what appeared to be an imaginary world where nobody was allowed in. Adrien’s heart was pounding so hard that it was physically hurting him. He didn’t dare say a word, because he knew that had he spoken, she wouldn’t have continued. And he really,  _ really  _ wanted her to continue. So he kept his mouth shut and his ears open and listened to each and every word, as if his life depended on it.

“He’s gorgeous and there’s no way of denying it. Absolutely perfect and flawless. But that’s not the reason why I love him. He’s much more than just a pretty face. He’s kind and gentle and forgiving. He always has a good word for everyone even if his family life is… oh God, I didn’t even know half of how terrible it was until now. I accused him wrongly the first time I met him and instead of hating me for it and hanging out with his friend Chloé, he reached out to me and explained himself, even if he didn’t have to.”

The more Marinette spoke, the more Adrien’s face, already flushed because of the high temperature, turned a deeper shade of red. His eyes widened when she mentioned the umbrella (Seriously? Since  _ then _ ?) and then Chloé, and his mouth gaped open as a stupid smile spread over his lips. There was no denying who the person was that she was talking about, and his day… his day had gone from being the worst day of his life to be maybe the best one. 

“He’s so patient,” continued Marinette, her voice cracking as her eyes became glassy and wet, “he never makes a fuss about me being such a klutz around him or tripping over my words, or being clumsy and falling or breaking something in his presence. He just smiles that gorgeous smile that lights up his whole face and makes his eyes gleam and gives me one of those looks that melt my heart and make me become an even bigger mess in front of him.” 

She stopped talking for some time, her fist clenched near her chest, her eyes still gazing into that little bit of wall that she didn’t seem to want to stop staring at. “I’ve done so many things that I’m ashamed of. My crush hasn’t been very healthy. I-I’ve kept track of his schedule, given him presents and cards and forgot to sign them, lied to him when he asked me directly what I felt for him, tried to kidnap him—” 

Adrien couldn’t help there, he gasped. She did  _ what _ ?? But luckily hearing him gasp didn’t seem to stop Marinette. Although it did make the shade of red in her face turn into deep crimson. 

“—I also stole his phone to delete a message I had sent my accident. I sent him a video saying that I loved him on the day of the anniversary of his mother’s disappearance, to let him know I was going to be there for him, but his cousin deleted it. And then, then I thought he had started dating Kagami and I tried! I really tried to let him go and learn to love Luka, b-but I j-just couldn’t. I couldn’t! I COULDN'T, BECAUSE I LOVE HIM TOO MUCH!” 

She started sobbing into her hands, and Adrien itched to move and wrap her into a massive hug, as the stupid smile on his lips widened. But Tikki signaled him to stop from the top of Marinette’s head, and Adrien froze on the spot. 

“And then,” continued Marinette, taking her hands off her face and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, “there was this  _ cat _ , you know. This wonderful, generous, fantastic and super sexy boy who wore a black skin-tight suit and had the most adorable cat ears on the sides of his head.” 

She smiled softly, while her hands mimicked the gesture of rubbing a set of ears. 

“He kept flirting with me and declaring his undying love for me, and trying to offer me roses of any colour. He put his life in danger daily to save me, and he even respected me when I told him I loved someone else. I initially thought he was just a bit of a clown and a flirt, but slowly but surely, he managed to earn an always bigger place in my heart, and my full trust. I even grew to like his dumb puns and weird sense of humour. Gosh, I can’t believe I’m saying this to you!” She giggled. 

“When in New York, I nearly lost him, I realised how important he was to me. Slowly since then my feelings for him have grown so much that I had gotten to the point that I was considering accepting his advances and revealing our identities, but I never managed to, because…” Her voice cracked. “I was  _ afraid _ . Afraid that accepting his love would put both of us in danger. And also afraid to not be able to let go of the  _ other boy, _ because I still loved him too much and every time I laid my eyes on him in school my heart skipped a beat. And he had also made it clear that he wasn’t in a relationship with Kagami recently, so I knew he was available. And I was so confused! I didn’t know how it was possible to love two boys so deeply.” 

Finally she managed to tear her gaze from the wall she had been staring at until now and move it to look at him straight in the eye, taking in his stupefied expression, his flushed and tomato-red face, the tears in his eyes and the  _ very _ stupid smile spreading all over his lips. She blushed crimson. 

“A-and here I am, in a horrible hostel room, finding out that the two boys that I thought I loved were only one fantastic person and that I had tried to stop loving Adrien Agreste by falling in love with Adrien Agreste all over ag—” 

He hugged her so tightly that Marinette nearly stopped breathing (and had to stop talking). “I would kiss you if I could, but I don’t want to get you sick,” he whispered in her ear, causing her to shiver, “but I’m so happy right now I can’t even function properly. I’m at a loss for words.” If possible, he squeezed her tighter. 

“Does it mean that you’re not disappointed?” asked Marinette as soon as she managed to breathe, and her lips curled into a smile when he broke the hug and looked at her.

“It means that I love you, Marinette.” He gave her one of those soft looks that melted her insides as what he had just said registered in her brain and Marinette widened her eyes in shock. He moved a hand to her cheek and stroked it tenderly from her chin to her ear. Then he cupped his hand there and rubbed softly the thin skin under her eye. “And I would love to make just as long a speech as you just did and tell you—” 

He breathed in and he exploded into yet another fit of coughs. When he finished coughing, he continued, in a hoarse tone of voice, “I would like to tell you too how deeply I have fallen in love with you, in and out of the mask. How painful it was for me to be constantly rejected with the mask on and see you with Luka without the mask, although I had no idea why it hurt so much. But now I know. My brain hadn’t joined the dots, but my heart had. No wonder I felt so attracted to you all the time. I must be the blindest person to ever inhabit planet Earth.”

“You love me?” said Marinette in a low whisper. 

Adrien nodded, grabbed her hand and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles, his gaze locked into hers. He tried breathing slowly, to not cough again, but it didn’t work. 

“Bloody hell,” he muttered after another fit of coughs. 

He looked out of the window and the first rays of the rising sun were starting to light the darkness of the night sky in shades of crimson and indigo. The first few birds were also chirruping by the cracked opened window. Out of the room, in the corridor, the first of the residents of the hostel were starting to move around, some probably to the bathroom and some to have breakfast.

Marinette looked on the verge of tears; her face was a deep red up to her neck. She seemed to be looking around with glassy eyes, almost as if she was trying to find an excuse to change the subject. 

“I wonder if the Reception is open now,” she eventually said. 

“Just checked. It’s not yet open, it opens at 7 am,” came Plagg’s voice as the little black kwami emerged from the door. 

Marinette huffed. “I was hoping we could just leave,” she said. Then she picked up the thermometer again and unceremoniously filled Adrien’s ear with it.

“Ow,” he let out, as the machine beeped once, and Marinette clicked it again, making it beep a second time.

“Sorry, Chaton. And sorry for doing it twice, but the first reading is never accurate.” She took the machine out of his ear and had a look at the temperature. 37.9°C. “Well, at least it’s gone down. But it’s still high, minou. You shouldn’t be in a place such as this. Here, take some more tablets,” she said after taking a look at her watch. She gave him another two tablets from the box in her purse, and then she put a hand to her chin. “If only we could get your stuff!” she mumbled. 

Then she looked up. Her gaze darted to Tikki. And to Plagg. She banged her fist onto her opened palm. 

“Of course. Why didn’t I think of it before?” She gave a nod to Adrien. “You stay here, Adrien, and take your medicine. If you can, start getting your stuff ready. If you can’t, just stay in bed. I’ll be right back.” She stood up from the bed and looked at Tikki and Plagg decisively. “Let’s go, guys. We’ve got an office to break into!”

* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Hello again!**

**Hope you liked chapter 5. Yes, she finally managed to tell him. To his face. Way to go, Marinette!**

**Next chapter will see a change of scene and there will be some fun bits too, after all the angst and the fluff and the h/c. What will happen? You’ll find out next week, keep following and please leave me a review, I love reading your comments!**

**In the next chapter, “Home Sweet Home”:**

**— “Wow, you’re a great thief, M’lady!”**

**— “Uh, I don’t want you to have problems with your parents, Marinette. If they become angry because I’m here, I’ll just leave.”**

**— “We have a guest, Tom. Come up, please.”**

**Last but not least, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server,** [ **Miraculous Fanworks** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **(for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you next week here with chapter 6!**


	6. Home Sweet Home

Marinette walked out of the room, then tiptoed her way through the corridor, following Plagg who by now knew the building really well. She and Tikki eventually found themselves in front of a small desk, behind which stood a closed oak door with the sign ‘Bureau du Directeur’ on it. When she saw it, Marinette hid behind the wall of the corridor leading to the staircase, and had a good look left and right before moving. She also inspected the hall for any sign of security cameras, but as she expected in such a small and unkempt hostel, there were none to be seen. When she was sure that nobody would see her, she walked quietly to the Reception desk and then let Tikki and Plagg out of her purse. The two kwamis flew through the office door and, a few seconds later, Marinette heard a loud ‘Clack’, and the door sprang open. She quickly walked in and closed it behind her. 

The office wasn’t very big, and was quite messy. A quick inspection confirmed that there were no security cameras in there either. There were papers everywhere, and among those, Marinette could see the photocopied documents and IDs of quite a few residents, left in full display. On the desk, there were a couple of mugs that still seemed to have some dark liquid in it (coffee by the smell of it; Marinette wrinkled her nose) and a plate full of crumbs was resting on the side of the desk. 

“Not the tidiest person, this ‘director’, huh?” whispered Marinette. 

“Here, Pigtails! I think this is where the documents are stored.” Plagg emerged from one of the cabinets and beckoned to Marinette to approach. She did as she was told and opened the cabinet she was pointed to, finding a huge mess of paperwork all unceremoniously dumped into little folders marked by letters. 

“Okay, this is going to take a while!” she said as she started looking through the paperwork at the letter A. But Plagg stopped her hand with a paw and pointed at the letter O. 

“It’s a long story, as I said, Pigtails; but you may want to look for one  _ Aaron O’Neill _ .”

She looked at him in puzzlement, but soon enough, she found the paperwork that had been signed the night before, under the name ‘Aaron O’Neill’. Held together with it using an elastic band were an ID card, a passport and a wallet, all kept inside a small, clear plastic bag. Oh yes! Those were Adrien’s IDs and wallet! Marinette had to muffle a cry of victory. 

“Aaron O’Neill?” she wondered, giving Plagg a skeptical look.

“As I said, ask my  _ gamin _ . He would be happy to tell you what happened, I’m sure.”

“Marinette, we need to go!” came Tikki’s voice as the little kwami emerged from the wooden door. “A couple of residents are starting to walk around; someone may see us if we’re not careful!”

Marinette didn’t have to be told twice. She picked up a sticky note from the untidy desk at her right, wrote quickly a note that said, ‘Thank you for your help. A.’ and attached it to the paperwork together with the key of his dormitory. After all, the woman had helped Adrien and had refused to chuck him out in the cold; she deserved to not panic when she looked for his ID later on that morning. 

Then, Marinette placed everything back inside the O folder. She took Adrien’s belongings, closed the drawer, and tiptoed her way to the door. “Is the way clear?” she asked, and when Tikki’s face emerged from the door and nodded, Marinette opened it and walked out. 

oOoOoOoOoOo

“Did you find them?” asked Adrien as she returned to his room. The girl showed proudly the three items that she held in her hand and Adrien beamed. “Wow, you’re a great thief, M’lady!”

She gave him a stare. “Thanks, I suppose.” Then she looked around, and at him, noticing that he was wearing his coat, and the few things he had out of his backpack and suitcase weren’t in sight anymore. “So you have packed.”

“There wasn’t much to pack, so, um, yeah. I just put my wet shirt into a bag and stored it in my backpack with the rest of the stuff I took out.”

“Did you take your medicine?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, and smiled when he nodded. “Good cat.” Her voice was confident, but Adrien did notice that she hadn’t looked him in the eye once, and her cheeks were tinged in pink. His thoughts went back to what she had said earlier, and his heart sped up a bit, while his own cheeks flushed, and not because of the high temperature.

They discussed what to do and the best option they could find was for Adrien to transform. Marinette transformed too, and then put Adrien’s backpack on her shoulders, while the boy was carrying the suitcase. Then, Marinette opened the window and they both propelled themselves out of it. 

The trip to Marinette’s home was short, but Chat Noir felt it all in his bones. The crisp morning breeze ruffled his hair, causing him to shiver on many occasions: not the light shivers due to the chill, but heavy shivers that shook his whole spine and left him breathless. Also, the weight of the suitcase, not as noticeable in the suit as it had been out of it, was slowing him down. It nearly made him lose his balance a couple of times when he had to stop on a rooftop to cough. 

But, eventually, they reached Marinette’s balcony and then went through the skylight door, landing on Marinette’s bed. 

Chat Noir jumped off it immediately, as if it was burning him, and put his suitcase on the ground. Marinette let go of his backpack on the bed and then descended from it, whispering, “Spots off.” In a flash of pink, her transformation fell and an unmasked Marinette smiled shyly at Chat Noir. 

“I will never get tired of watching that,” he said with a smile and immediately released his own transformation.

“Likewise, Chaton,” she said back, and hugged him. She could feel even just from his cheeks and neck that he was getting warmer. “Your temperature is going up again. You’ve been so silly, Adrien. You should have come to me. You know I would never have left you in the cold.” She looked at him until he nodded quietly. “And Luka. He’s  _ your  _ friend too. Even if he  _ had  _ been my boyfriend, do you really think he would have minded you coming to look for me because you needed help?”

“I feel stupid now,” he admitted putting a hand on the nape of his neck. 

Marinette sighed and then stood and walked down the stairs that brought from the mezzanine to the floor of her room. Then she walked across the floor and reached the latch to the trapdoor. She opened it and looked up to him. “I’m going to get some cough syrup. I’ll be right back,” she said and then continued in a lower tone, “as long as  _ Maman  _ and  _ Papa  _ don’t kill me first.”

Adrien’s heart skipped a beat. “Wait!” he said with such a rough tone of voice that he could hardly recognise it as his own. Marinette heard him and stopped in her tracks, looking expectantly at him, half her body already down the stairs and only her head emerging from the trapdoor, plus an arm to hold the trapdoor itself. “Uh, I don’t want you to have problems with your parents, Marinette. If they become angry because I’m here, I’ll just leave.”

“Nonsense,” muttered Marinette. “You’re not moving from that spot, _minou_. If you move a millimetre I swear I’ll hang you upside down from the top of the Eiffel Tower as soon as you get better!”

A nervous smile curved Adrien lips, as he sat down on her bed and reached with his hand again to the nape of his neck. “Uh… as M’lady commands!” he said. 

Marinette gave him a nod and disappeared under the trap door.

oOoOoOoOoOo

“Are you up already, darling?” came Sabine’s voice from the kitchen. Marinette’s heart sank. She was hoping that her parents had already both gone downstairs to get the boulangerie prepared for the morning, so that she wouldn’t need to face them and explain herself. A quick look around made her notice that her  _ Papa  _ must have already gone downstairs, but her  _ Maman  _ was still there, taking her time to have breakfast, it looked like.

Marinette blushed profusely. “Uh, yes, _bonjour_ , _Maman_. I’m awake, yes.”

“It’s unusual to see you up at this time of the morning. Are you all right?”

Marinette sighed. “I am,  _ Maman _ . I-I n-need to tell you something.” As she said that, she went to the press where her family stored the medicine and rummaged through it to take out a bottle of cough syrup. She squinted her eyes to look at the instructions. That was for a chesty cough. She looked inside the cabinet again and saw other syrups looking menacingly at her with their incomprehensible instructions. What kind of cough did Adrien have? Chesty? Dry? Uh, so much information! She was no doctor!

“You don’t have a cough, sweetheart. Why are you looking for cough syrup?” Marinette turned to find her mother just a step away from her, scrutinising her with growing concern.

“It’s Adrien,  _ Maman _ .” The woman gasped. “He’s very sick. I couldn’t leave him where he was. I-I had to bring him home with me.”

Sabine put a hand on her shoulder and when Marinette looked up at her mother’s face, she was giving her a soft smile and looking at her warmly. She didn’t question anything. She didn’t ask what she meant about ‘bringing him home with her’. She just looked at her and said, “Of course you couldn’t. Why don’t we go and have a look at him? Maybe I can establish what kind of cough he has and we can give him the right medicine. He may need to go and see a doctor if he’s that sick. What happened?”

Marinette looked down. She didn’t deserve such a wonderful mother. She hugged the elder woman’s small frame, and her eyes filled up with tears. “I can’t tell you all about it,  _ Maman _ , but believe me, he wasn’t in a good place.”

Her mother put a finger on her mouth. “Say no more. He will tell me if he chooses to. Let’s go.”

When Marinette re-emerged from the trapdoor followed by Sabine, Adrien’s heart skipped a beat. And then it skipped another one when he saw the motherly look on Sabine’s face. When she saw him well, her eyes widened. “My poor boy, what has happened to you?” She moved quickly, grabbing the back of his head and moving it to give a kiss on his forehead. “He’s really hot, Marinette. Have you given him some Doliprane?”

“Yes,  _ Maman _ , less than an hour ago. Here,” she said, passing on the thermometer to her. Sabine placed it carefully into Adrien’s ear, made it beep twice and took it out to see 38.4°C. 

“Are you okay, Sabine?” Tom’s voice echoed in the silence of the room as the man’s head emerged from the trapdoor. “Is Marinette all right? I saw the medicine cabinet open!”

“We have a guest, Tom. Come up, please.”

They heard Tom mutter something under his breath and after a couple of minutes his head appeared from the stairs to the mezzanine. When he saw Adrien, his eyes widened as much as Sabine’s had. 

“What’s happened to you, son?” The imposing man walked to Marinette’s bed and sat down next to Sabine, making the bed creak under his weight. He looked with concern at the thermometer in his wife’s hand. 

“I had… a disagreement with my father. And ran away. I couldn’t find shelter—”

“Why didn’t you come here? We would have helped you,” said Tom simply. 

Marinette shook her head and sighed. “Just being silly,  _ Papa _ . He didn’t want to  _ impose _ .”

“Impose  _ what _ ? He was in trouble, you’re his friend, we were going to help. What was there to impose, son? Never do that again!” Tom moved to squeeze Adrien in a tight hug and it took no time for Adrien to start coughing quite harshly on his shoulder.

“ _ Papa _ ! Let him breathe, he’s sick!” said Marinette trying to get her father to release the boy. Eventually, after he heard Adrien coughing, Tom let him go.

“That’s a nasty cough,” he said, at the same time as Sabine said, “You need to see a doctor as soon as the clinic opens.” She saw Adrien open his mouth and put a finger on his lips. “I am not taking no for an answer. I’ll call our family doctor in a couple of hours.” 

Tom looked at all the bottles that were on Marinette’s bed. “Have you brought up the whole medicine cabinet,  _ ma baguette _ ?” he said to Marinette. She blushed.

“I didn’t know what kind of cough he had.  _ Maman _ said she would help me establish it, so I brought up all the bottles.”

“I think it’s definitely what I would call a chesty cough, dear,” said Sabine. She picked up one of the bottles and a spoon she had brought from downstairs, and proceeded to fill it up and give it to Adrien to put into his mouth, which he did. “Good boy. This contains codeine, so it will ease the pain too.”

“Are these yours?” asked Tom pointing at the backpack and suitcase. Adrien nodded, blushing slightly, his hand reaching the nape of his neck. 

Tom raised an eyebrow. “I don’t want to know how or why they got up here in the mezzanine, but I’ll take them downstairs. You can sleep in the guestroom for as long as you like, son. We normally use the room for my mother, but she’s currently in Patagonia so she won’t mind.”

Adrien’s eyes widened. “Really, sir, I don’t want to impose. I can sleep on the couch.”

“Nonsense!” Tom glared at him. “When you’re sick, you’re achy. Sleeping on the couch is definitely not the best thing to do when you’re in pain. The guestroom’s bed is much more comfortable and currently empty.”

“Tom is right, dear,” said Sabine, putting a hand on Adrien’s shoulder. “Don’t ever think that you’re disturbing us at all.” Adrien’s eyes filled with tears.

Tom cleared his throat and eyed the suitcase and backpack with a frown. “Although I must say that we do need to establish some  _ ground rules _ .” He cleared his throat again and gave Adrien ‘the look’. Adrien gulped awkwardly and blushed some more. “ _ You _ sleep in the guestroom, and  _ you _ in your own bed, have I made myself clear?” he said, pointing his finger first at Adrien and then at Marinette. The two teens started nodding their heads nervously as they blushed crimson. “Good. As long as this ground rule is clear, there’s only one more rule.”

Adrien leaned forward to look at Tom expectantly. The baker smiled.

“Just make yourself at home, son. Until you sort out things with your father, of course.” Adrien and Marinette exchanged meaningful looks, which didn’t go unseen by Tom. “If you  _ can’t  _ sort out things, you can stay as long as you want.” He stood up and wiped his hands dusted in flour on his trousers. Then, he picked up Adrien’s backpack and suitcase and, with perfect ease, carried them downstairs. 

oOoOoOoOoOo

The morning passed unpacking the few belongings that Adrien had brought with him and waiting for Marinette’s family doctor. Luckily, being Saturday, Marinette wasn’t expected to go to school, but Adrien saw his phone buzzing as soon as 7 am came and the Gorilla must have entered his empty room at the mansion.

**Mr. G.: [Where are you?]**

Marinette laughed at the nickname Adrien had called his bodyguard. “What are you going to say?” she asked then.

**Adrien: [Long story. I will explain when I see you. I’m okay, don’t worry, I’m with a friend. Please don’t tell my father that I’m not home. You can have one of my rare action figures, from my collection. You can have them all if you like. Please.]**

**Mr. G.: [I hope you have a good excuse. Which friend are you with?]**

**Adrien: [I’m with Marinette. Her parents have called their doctor. I’ll be fine. Can you ask Nathalie to cancel my schedule for next week? I’m really not well.]**

**Mr. G.: [All right, let me know if you need me.]**

**Adrien: [Thank you. You’re the best!]**

Adrien sighed and dropped his phone onto Marinette’s table, where they were currently sitting at. Tom and Sabine were downstairs and the two teens were having breakfast. Not that Adrien was particularly hungry, but he made an effort because the second he’d said that he didn’t want to eat, Marinette had glared at him and had commanded him to do so. “You need food to get your strength back,” she had said. 

The doctor arrived at around lunch time. He checked Adrien thoroughly and spent a long time listening to him breathing while holding that freezing torture instrument called stethoscope on his back. Then, he decided that Adrien’s flu had degenerated into bronchitis. “You’ve been very lucky, my child,” he had said. “Going around in the cold when you already have the flu could have caused worse complications, like pneumonia. Never underestimate the flu.” He prescribed Dextromethorphan to suppress the cough and more Doliprane to keep his temperature down.

“No need for an antibiotic?” asked Marinette with surprise.

“No, dear,” said the doctor. “It’s a viral infection. If the cough gets worse and there’s fear of a bacterial complication, please call me back and I  _ will _ prescribe an antibiotic.” Then he saw how strongly the girl’s hand had wrapped around the boy’s knee and chuckled. “Marinette, your  _ boyfriend _ only has a minor case of bronchitis, he will survive.” He chuckled some more when he saw the deep blush that spread on the girl’s cheeks, and the way the boy’s hand had run to the nape of his neck.

“Um, oh, no,” stammered Marinette, but the doctor chuckled some more.

“My dear girl, I’ve been your doctor from the day you were this tall.” He put his hand at around a meter from the floor. “I can clearly recognise the symptoms of a very common disease here, called ‘falling in love’. There’s no cure for it, it just needs a lot of cuddling.” That said, he gave Marinette a pat on the back and a meaningful look, and stood up, gathering back his stuff. He then walked downstairs to the boulangerie to say goodbye to Tom and Sabine. The two teens heard him commenting on them being ‘young and passionate with hormones raging’ and both their faces became as red as a tomato. 

“So… we’re really that obvious, aren’t we?” deadpanned Adrien, staring at his hands.

“Apparently, yeah,” confirmed Marinette.

“You don’t even know how much!” muttered Plagg from somewhere behind the microwave.

“Plagg! Let them be!” scolded Tikki, causing both their holders to laugh.

* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Hello again!**

**Hope you liked chapter 6. Adrien is safe at last, and Tom and Sabine are... Tom and Sabine. No doubts! You don’t know how much fun I had writing that doctor in this chapter ^-^**

**Next chapter comes back to the emotional h/c when finally Adrien shows Marinette what lies underneath the mansion, and they develop a plan. What will happen? You’ll find out next week, keep following and please leave me a review, I love reading your comments!**

**In the next chapter, “Beautiful and Scary”:**

**— “I won’t deny that I have been there, asking myself—asking myself what if…”**

**— “What was that for, Adrien?”**

**— “Things can be beautiful** **_and_ ** **scary, My Lady.”**

**Last but not least, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server,** [ **Miraculous Fanworks** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **(for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you next week here with chapter 7!**


	7. Beautiful and Scary

It took nearly a week, but finally the cough started to improve. So one evening, when Adrien received a message from the Gorilla to let him know that his father and Nathalie would be back the next morning, he and Marinette decided to sit down on her bed and face the elephant in the room. 

“Plagg told me you found Hawkmoth’s lair,” said Marinette looking at him with a serious frown.

Adrien nodded, as the memories from the day he had run away started to come back to his mind and his eyes already started stinging for tears that he had repressed for too long. 

“Yes. There’s a secret passage attached to the portrait of my mother in my father’s office. I activated it by accident,” he said. “I think that it’s the lair where he breeds the butterflies. And a coffin there in the centre of the space—” His voice cracked and he couldn’t continue. Marinette stretched towards him and hugged him firmly, but squealed in surprise when Adrien hugged back with all his strength. 

“I’m so sorry, Adrien,” whispered Marinette into his ear. 

The boy squeezed her some more and continued, “She hasn’t changed at all, Marinette. She's exactly as I remember her.” He sniffled. “She’s not dead, but apparently sleeping.” He went quiet for a long moment. “I know why my father wants our Miraculous.”

Marinette gasped and broke the hug, looking at him in the eye. “You know that, as noble as his intentions may be—” but he put a finger on her mouth and shut her up. 

“I know, Marinette.” He looked down, his eyes full of tears. “I won’t deny that I have been there, asking myself—asking myself what if…” He moved slightly away from her and hugged his arms, starting to rock back and forth. Marinette moved back closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder and rested her head on the top part of his arm. She looked as if she wanted to talk, but Adrien saw that and continued, “but I know we can't do it. I know it’s not right. As much as I would love my mother back, I know that even she wouldn’t approve of what Father has done.” He crouched down a little bit, pinned his elbows on his thighs and buried his face into his fists, looking down sadly. “It’s so hard, though. I miss her so much.”

Marinette didn’t say anything and just hugged him, tears falling even out of her own eyes. This was so messed up. They stayed in that position for a while, just content with each other’s presence and warmth, as Adrien told Marinette everything that had happened the night she had rescued him from the hostel. When he finished talking, Marinette wrapped him in another long hug, until Tikki flew in between them and Plagg immediately followed. 

“Plagg brought me to the lair,” said Tikki. She lowered her head and sighed. “I’m so sorry, Adrien. I think that your mother is in an enchanted sleep.”

Adrien looked at her in puzzlement. “You mean like Sleeping Beauty? It’s not a fairytale, Tikki!”

The red kwami smiled. “I know that. But enchanted sleeps don’t just happen in fairy tales, Adrien. It wouldn’t be the first time that the holder of a damaged Miraculous compromised their health so much that the Miraculous would seal her into an enchanted sleep until the problem can be fixed.”

“It has happened only once before, but it did happen already, _gamin_. The Miraculous of the Tiger had been damaged, but because of the situation we were in, the holder decided to carry on using it, against the Guardian’s advice. She started getting sick, dizzy spells, bad coughs… yes, I know you think what I’m thinking,” he said, as Adrien gasped. “Ice Queen was showing the same symptoms and I was so stupid to not recognise them.”

“So you’re saying that the Peacock was damaged and that Adrien’s mother was using it?” asked Marinette.

Tikki nodded. “I think so. Adrien’s mother was using it and also Nathalie.” She glared at Plagg, probably because of the silly nickname he had used when the situation was so serious. “But your father has stolen Master Fu’s tablet with all the translation of the Grimoire, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Miraculous has been fixed now and that’s why he has been able to unify his Miraculous and the Peacock and increase his powers in the last year.”

“What happened to that holder, Plagg? D-did she die?” 

Plagg gave Adrien a good look. “No, _gamin_. But before you get your hopes up, it’s a very ancient and powerful magic, and we would need the help of the Order of the Guardians. You two are too young to master spells as complex as those.” But Plagg’s words couldn’t stop Adrien from beaming, a huge smile curling his lips and igniting hope in his eyes. 

“There’s hope, though!” he said enthusiastically. For the first time since he had walked into his father’s lair and seen his mother into that coffin, he was starting to feel that there could be a solution, that maybe he could get his mother back, and without destroying the world in the process. No matter what it took, he was going to try. He shook his fists and started breathing fast because of the euphoria. He had to do something to release all those emotions that were building up in his gut, or he was going to explode.

Marinette smiled. “We will do whatever can be done to bring your mother back, _chaton_. I’m so happy that there’s hope!” 

She barely finished saying that, and Adrien grabbed her hand, pulled her closer and placed his lips on hers, embracing her firmly and holding her head with his hands. 

Marinette’s eyes sprang open; that was something she had never even considered happening yet. She was mind blown by Adrien’s fervour, but after the initial moment of shock, she moved her arms to his shoulders, pulling him closer, and started running her hands through his hair. His hands moved from her head and the boy squeezed her into a massive hug, his hands running freely down her back, going to her waist and then running up her sides. 

It only lasted a few seconds, but for them, it felt like an eternity. When they broke the kiss to breathe, Adrien stared into the beautiful bluebell eyes of the girl he loved and smiled. They looked at each other for a very long time before any of them was able to say a word. 

“What was that for, Adrien?” Marinette finally managed to say as she curled up into his arms and pushed herself into his chest so much that he felt she was trying to melt into him. “Mind you, I’m not complaining. Not complaining at all. But it just felt a bit sudden.”

She felt him chuckle. “Sudden?” he whispered. “M’lady, do you realise how long I’ve been waiting for it?”

She emerged from her curling position on his chest to give him a languid look and push her forehead lovingly against his. “Well then, let’s not make you wait as long for the second one,” she said and she kissed him again. 

The second kiss was softer and less desperate, but after he recovered from the initial shock and managed to calm down the flock of butterflies that had found residence in his stomach, he gave her a firm push, making her fall on her back on the bed, with him on top. He saw her slight reaction of surprise, and as her mouth gaped slightly open because of it, he grabbed his chance and deepened the kiss, totally expecting for her to freeze, and having to pull back because of it. But instead, his Lady surprised _him_ , as she too slipped her tongue into his mouth, deepening the kiss even on her end. 

With a limb push, Marinette rolled him to the right making him fall on his back and turning tables. She gave him a cunning look. “Now, now. I like it more like this.”

He smiled. “As always, M’lady. I’m totally at your mercy.” 

Marinette couldn’t believe the intensity in his grass green eyes as he gave her a languid look full of passion. She claimed his lips again and as their tongues fought for dominance, she allowed him to push her on the left again and resume his previous position on top. He broke the kiss for the sole purpose of breathing and started peppering her jaw and neck with kisses until he stopped at the crook of her neck and started sucking on it.

“Ow, Monsieur le Vampire, we’ve got things to discuss,” tried to complain Marinette, but he shut her up with another kiss and when he regained the use of his mouth whispered into her ear,

“Hawkmoth can wait.”

She laughed, but pushed on him to resume her sitting position. “As enticing as your intentions can be, _chaton_ , and believe me, it kills me to stop you but… no, Hawkmoth cannot wait. Work first, fun later.”

Adrien pouted, but went back into sitting position as well. “Killjoy,” he muttered as he folded his arms on his chest and looked away. Marinette couldn’t help but muffle a chuckle at his grumpy expression.

Tikki and Plagg flew in between them. Tikki looked at both, smiled, and then asked Marinette, “Have you got a plan yet?”

Marinette sighed. “Not a real plan, no. Maybe I should see the lair first.”

“That can be arranged,” said Adrien. He was smiling now, but it didn’t reach his eyes and Marinette knew why. “Follow me, My Lady. Claws out!” 

oOoOoOoOoOo

Ladybug walked almost reverentially across the bridge that led to the massive butterfly symbol that towered at the centre of the little island at the end of it, following Chat Noir. The boy stopped just at the end of the bridge, and when Ladybug reached him and looked him in the face, she understood why. Tears were flowing from his eyes down his cheeks and were running freely from his chin, wetting his suit. He wasn’t even trying to stop them, as he watched his mother’s beautiful smile as she slept. 

“ _Chaton_ , I’m so sorry,” she whispered. 

He finally found it in himself to move and approached the coffin, pushing the button he now knew lifted up the glass. Then, he walked beside the body of the sleeping woman and kneeled down next to her, picking her body into his arms and sobbing on her chest. The machine linked to the coffin started beeping regularly. 

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” he said, more to himself than to Ladybug, but the girl nodded anyway. He took a deep sigh. “I really hope that the Guardians will help us. I miss her so much.” He clenched his arms around his mother’s sleeping body and new tears came out of his eyes. “I know that what Father did is wrong. But… I can’t deny that when I saw her here, the thought of helping him did cross my mind, Marinette. Am I such a bad person?”

Her eyes also filled with tears. She crouched down behind him and hugged him tight. “Not at all, _chaton_. Anybody would be tempted. The power of Creation and Destruction is so strong, and it hurts so much to see your mother like that. But you know what’s the difference between you and your father?”

He shook his head.

“You _know_ what’s the right thing to do. You won’t do what your father did.”

The beeps of the machine were getting louder and louder. Reluctantly, Chat Noir placed the cold body of his mother back into the coffin and made to stand up to close the glass back on it. But his legs failed him and he just staggered and kneeled down again. 

Ladybug put a hand on his head trying to soothe him by gently stroking his hair, and Chat Noir couldn’t stand it any more. He rested his arms on the base of the coffin and hid his face in them. The sound of his sobs ripped a raw wound in Ladybug’s heart. She kneeled down next to him and wrapped him up in another hug, but he pushed her away. She respected that, waiting on her knees next to him, her heart breaking at every and each of his cries, muffled by his arms and suit. 

“Adrien, I’m here for you if you need me,” she said tentatively, putting a hand on his shoulder and expecting him to push it away again. Instead, Chat Noir lifted his face, looking at her with such desperation that she wished she could melt into him and take all that hurt away. As if he’d heard her train of thought, he grabbed her arm and hugged her so tightly that she nearly felt the need to push away from him, just to breathe. Instead, she hugged him back, finding a more comfortable position that would allow her to still squeeze him, but function properly. 

She wrapped her arms around his neck, patting softly on his head and uttering muffled ‘shhhhhhh’ sounds to soothe him. “Good, _chaton_. Let it all out,” she hummed into his ear.

It was a very long time before Chat Noir let her go. She didn’t dare move a muscle, knowing that the boy needed her support. Eventually, after such a long time that her legs had started to hurt, the boy let go of her and wiped his cheeks and eyes with the back of his hand. He stood up, with a little difficulty, and walked to the front of the coffin, pushing the button that closed the glass. 

“Come, there’s something else you need to see,” he said eventually, his voice still very hoarse. 

She nodded and followed him to the lift at the side of the butterfly symbol on the wall, which brought them to the upstairs lair. Chat Noir’s night vision helped him find the switch to open the mechanism on the wall, and he showed Ladybug what he thought was the place where his father had spent the last three years sending akumas from. The same butterfly symbol that adorned the downstairs lair was decorating even the window frame that appeared as the wall opened up, lighting the space around them. The flock of butterflies that inhabited the room started flying around. 

“It would be beautiful if it wasn’t scary,” whispered Ladybug in the hushed silence. 

“Things can be beautiful _and_ scary, My Lady.”

She sighed. “You’re right.” She followed with her gaze a white butterfly that crossed the space in front of her eyes. “Such pure creatures…” 

She tried to touch the little insect, but it flew away hastily, escaping from her hand. She walked to the window, staring absent-mindedly at the lights of the City shimmering in the night like little fireflies on a dark lawn. 

After a long time staring together at the city lights, Chat Noir looked at Ladybug. “What’s the plan, Marinette? We can’t stay here all night.”

“I do have an idea, minou. But we’ll need support. Fancy coming with me and giving back the Miraculouses to the team?”

Chat Noir gasped. “I thought you didn't want to use them any more to protect them, since their identity had been compromised.”

“The difference now is that we know who Hawkmoth and Mayura are,” she said thoughtfully. “Your father has lost his advantage. But we can’t win alone.”

“Me and you against the world?” he purred, to which Ladybug smiled softly.

“True, and that will always stand, _chaton_. But as strong as we can be as a couple,” she said as her cheeks caught fire, “we’re going to be stronger as a team. Come with me.”

“To the end of the world, My Lady!”

She bumped his nose and smiled. “I’ll let you off for being a melodramatic dork today, Adrien.” 

He grabbed her waist and forced her to turn towards him. Then, he touched his forehead to hers and looked at her tenderly. “But I’m your dork.” He smiled and she smiled back.

“I know,” she said and gave him a soft peck on the lips before turning around and entering the lift.

* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Hello again!**

**Hope you liked chapter 7. Next chapter is the end. T_T Yes, I know… but the good news is that I have serious plans to write a _sequel_ (shhhhhhh as a birthday present for someone. Keep quiet!). **

**What will happen in the next chapter? You’ll find out next week, keep following and please leave me a review, I love reading your comments!**

**In the next chapter, “United again”:**

**— “But I thought we wouldn't be allowed to be superheroes any more because Hawkmoth knew our identity!”**

**— “I need to make this madness stop. I need to stop him. He’s hurt too many people already.”**

**— “You can count on me, Chat Noir. I won’t disappoint you.”**

**— “He’s doing it for her,” he said simply. Then he sighed heavily, clenched his fists and continued, “** **_My mother._ ** **”**

**Last but not least, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server,** [ **Miraculous Fanworks** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **(for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you next week here with the final chapter of this story!**


	8. United Again

When they landed on top of the building that hosted Nino’s apartment after having gone to the boulangerie to retrieve the Miracle Box, they both looked at each other decisively. They had discussed this part of the plan and they knew what to do. Using Chat Noir’s baton, they reached the height of Nino’s window, Ladybug comfortably sitting on Chat Noir’s leg, and Chat Noir knocked on the glass. 

A very sleepy Nino and Alya appeared at the other side of the glass. “I told you Alya was here, didn’t I,  _ chaton _ ?” whispered Ladybug as she waved at her best friend. Chat Noir nodded and waved too. 

Alya immediately seemed to be waking up, while Nino still looked confused. So the girl opened the window in a haste. “Ladybug? Chat Noir? What can we do for you?” 

With just one movement, the two heroes jumped inside the open window and Chat Noir spent a moment resizing his staff and placing it back behind his back. 

“There have been some new findings that are bound to change everything,” said Ladybug solemnly. “Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, we need your support as Rena Rouge and Carapace. Will you help us?”

Their two friends looked at Ladybug with their eyes wide open. “But I thought we wouldn't be allowed to be superheroes any more because Hawkmoth knew our identity!” said Alya.

Nino nodded. “Yes, you told us that it could be dangerous for ourselves and for our families.”

Ladybug sighed. “As I said, something has happened that has changed things. We know the identity of Hawkmoth and we also know the location of his lair. Identities don’t matter as much anymore.”

The gleam of curiosity that flashed in Alya’s eyes was unmistakable. 

“Alya, this doesn’t mean that you can reveal Hawkmoth’s identity on the Ladyblog. We have to be careful,” continued Ladybug, frowning because Alya’s cunning smile worried her.

“Amazing win, Ladybug. How did you find out?” asked the brunette excitedly.

“We will explain in due time,” said Chat Noir. “As of now, all we need to know is whether you want to help us or not.”

“And if you do,” continued Ladybug, “I’ll give you your Miraculouses permanently.”

“I was born to help!” Alya said at the same time as Nino said, “Of course we’ll help you, Dudette!”

Ladybug couldn’t help feeling teary. “Thanks, guys. You don’t know how important this is for us!” Then she picked up two red round boxes decorated with black spots and her face got a determined expression. “Alya Césaire, this is the Miraculous of the Fox which grants the power of Illusion. Nino Lahiffe, this is the Miraculous of the Turtle, which grants the power of Protection. If you agree to take them, you will use them for the greater good. Can we trust you guys?”

It was with a big massive grin on their faces that Alya and Nino looked at each other, nodded and picked their respective boxes together. “Of course, Ladybug!”

“Good,” said Chat Noir. “We’ll meet in an hour on top of the Eiffel Tower. See you then!” And with a two finger salute, the hero in black was gone, immediately followed by Ladybug. 

They went together to give the Miraculous to Alix, who was really excited to finally be entrusted with it, and then they went separate ways, Ladybug reaching out to Max, Kim and Luka, and Chat Noir going to see Kagami and Chloé. 

Chloé had been the only sore spot in the conversation when Ladybug and Chat Noir had decided what to do. Ladybug wasn’t completely sure that she could trust the blonde, especially after what had happened a couple of years before with the Miracle Queen incident. But Chat Noir had told her that everybody makes mistakes, not only Chloé. 

Ladybug had lowered her gaze, remembering a scene still very clear in her mind — Adrien and Kagami looking very smug and ready to kiss. She had been rushing with her yoyo to reach Master Fu’s latest location to grab a Miraculous to help her fight against Loveater. After seeing the couple though, she had completely forgotten to detransform, which had led Hawkmoth to find the Guardian and had caused Fu to lose his memories. 

She had also picked up the Miraculous of the Dragon rather than that of the Bee, just because she was jealous. She had put everybody’s lives in danger only to take Kagami away from Adrien at that time. And maybe… maybe had she not ignored Chloé, had she not chosen Kagami over her, when she was dying to help the team to save her own parents. Maybe then, Chloé would have resisted Hawkmoth’s temptation. Maybe then, Master Fu would still be her mentor. 

Ladybug had sighed at Chat Noir’s remark. “Maybe you’re right. It’s time to give her a second chance.”

When Chat Noir had landed on the terrace outside of Chloé’s apartment at the Grand Paris, the girl had come out of her room and had looked at him with a massive frown on her face.

“What are you doing here, Chat Noir? Haven’t you got better things to do? You’re ridiculous, ut—” as she was saying that, she had been moving her arms to fold them on her chest, but Chat Noir had stopped her and shut her up by grabbing hold of her wrist. So Chloé had turned around to look at him, ready to burst in a raging fit about how rude it was for a boy, hero of Paris or not, to invade her personal space and grab her hand without asking for permission. However, the intensity in Chat Noir’s cat-like eyes had made the comment die inside her throat. 

“It’s not time for this,  _ Chlo _ .” He emphasised the nickname and looked at her sternly. “We have a way to stop him, and we need everyone’s help.  _ I  _ need your help. Will you help  _ me _ ?”

Chloe’s eyes widened for the shock. She frowned and looked into Chat Noir’s eyes trying to find anything that would confirm her suspicions. 

“ _ I’m _ giving you a second chance, Chlo, because  _ you matter to me _ . I persuaded Ladybug for you. Don’t disappoint me again. Please. In the name of our friendship.” He took the ladybug shaped box from his pocket and showed it to Chloé, his gaze still locked into hers. 

“ _ A-Adrikins _ ?” She gulped awkwardly as he nodded. “Oh my God! Is it really  _ you  _ in there?”

He lowered his gaze. “Yes, Chlo.”

“You look… off, somehow.” She had a good look at him now and must have noticed that he was paler than usual and that his eyes were rimmed with red behind the black cat mask. 

“He’s my father, Chlo.” Chloé’s gasp resounded heavily in the silence of the night. “I need to make this madness stop. I need to stop him. He’s hurt too many people already.” His voice got always more hoarse as he kept talking and he eventually had to stop because it was cracking. Damn, how was he going to fulfil his part of the plan if just saying that Hawkmoth was his father was so hard?

“ _ Gabriel _ ?” whispered Chloé, sucking her breath in. Chat Noir nodded and Chloé held herself to the railing of her terrace. Her breathing caught up and her eyes filled with tears before she gave Chat Noir a hard look and squeezed her fists in rage, lifting them up to her face. 

“The BASTARD! He was my Godfather! My bloody GODFATHER, do you realise that, Adrikins?" She stomped a foot on the floor. "He akumatised my parents! Twice! He manipulated me and made me lose the trust of Ladybug. That bastard! Why is he doing it? Isn’t his  _ ridiculous _ brand wealthy enough? Does he really need to take over the world?”

“It’s more complicated than that, Chlo. Come to the top of the Eiffel Tower in half an hour. We’ll explain everything then, I promise.” That said, Chat Noir propelled himself out of the terrace, as Chloé fell to her knees, her eyes still locked on the shape of the hero in black as he jumped away and disappeared in the distance.

Recruiting Kagami again had been a little easier. Adrien had landed on the roof of the Tsurugi mansion, in the spot where he knew Kagami’s bedroom was. He had used his baton to lower himself at the height of her window, and hadn’t been surprised at all when he had seen the frown on the face of the Japanese girl, already waiting for him on the sill, her arms folded on her chest. 

“What is the hero of Paris doing here, Chat Noir? Last time I checked you two didn’t want me anymore because Hawkmoth knew my identity.”

“Can I come in?” he asked and when Kagami signaled to him to enter the room, he gave himself a push and landed on the tatami that covered her floor. He folded his baton, put it away and sat down with legs crossed, waiting for her to do the same.

“You haven’t answered my question, Chat Noir. The last thing I want is to put my mother in danger. She’s been already akumatised once. And my friends, my only friends. I don’t want them hurt just to help you.” She sat down on her knees with a graceful movement and lowered her gaze. 

“Things have changed, Kagami. We know who he is.” 

The girl gasped at the tone of his voice. He had been fighting tears all the way up there after talking to Chloé. He hadn’t really wanted to tell her that his father was Hawkmoth before letting the others know, but the phrase had just escaped from his mouth and her reaction had shocked him. His voice was hoarse now. 

“We have a plan, but for the plan to work, we need everybody’s help. I’m sorry to drag you again in this.”

“I accept,” she said, an angry tone in her voice. “If we know who he is, then we can fight him face to face and give him the lesson he deserves. He akumatised my mother once, and me more than once. He hurt too many people to get away with it.” She gave him a decisive look. “Count me in!”

Chat Noir sighed in relief. He took the ladybug shaped box out of his pocket and presented it to Kagami, a serious gleam in his eyes as he looked at her straight in the eye. “Kagami Tsurugi, this is the Miraculous of the Dragon, which gives the power of Perfection. You will use it for the greater good. Can I trust you?”

She grabbed the box from his hand and held his gaze. “You haven’t said that I will need to return it to you.”

“Yes, I haven’t said that; well spotted.”

Kagami’s eyes widened. “Do you mean that I can  _ keep  _ it?”

“We had a taste of what the future would be like, a couple of years ago, when an Akuma from the future came to the past trying to stop us before we grew stronger. We know we need a team of trustworthy people to fight alongside us.” He looked at her straight in the eye. “By taking this Miraculous, Kagami, you commit yourself to the life of a Miraculous Holder. It’s full of danger; I won’t lie to you. Danger, lies and unlimited frustration. But it’s also full of excitement and pride, for being given the chance to fight against evil. The choice is yours. If you take the box, your life will never be the same again.”

He saw the gleam of doubt passing through the amber eyes of the Japanese girl. He saw her hold on the box weaken as one of her hands reached her chest and her gaze darted from the box to his face. But then, Kagami’s eyes hardened and she took the box from his hand. “You can count on me, Chat Noir. I won’t disappoint you.” She smirked and he smirked back.

“You never have.” He stood up, gave her a two finger salute and climbed on the window sill. “I’ll wait for you at the top of the Eiffel Tower in fifteen minutes. Ladybug and I will explain everything then.” That said, he used his baton to propel himself out in the darkness.

oOoOoOoOoOo

And that was why Chat Noir was now sitting atop the Eiffel Tower, legs hanging off the cold metal frame and eyes scanning the city underneath him. The first one to arrive was obviously Ladybug, followed by Rena, Carapace, Ryuuko, Viperion, Pegasus, Bunnyx, King Monkey and Queen Bee. 

“Thank you for coming, guys, you don’t know how much it means to us that you’re helping us in this fight. That you have accepted to take the permanent responsibility to be a Miraculous holder.” Ladybug looked at Chat Noir and grabbed his hand as she spoke. “There’s so much that we need to talk to you about. But first, we want to show you the location of Hawkmoth’s lair. Follow us.”

The way Ladybug held Chat Noir’s hand as she said that hadn’t gone unnoticed by Rena Rouge. She raised an eyebrow and gave them both a cunning look, which dusted the cheeks of both heroes in scarlet red. Rena’s smile widened. 

“Let’s go,” announced Chat Noir, trying to gain back some composure before grabbing his baton from the small of his back and using it to jump away. 

When they landed on the rooftop of a house in front of the Agreste Manor, there were quite a few pairs of surprised eyes. Even Queen Bee was staring at the building towering in front of them with her mouth open. “So you weren’t kidding?” she whispered after approaching Chat Noir and getting close to his ear.

Chat Noir shook his head, and with a last jump, he landed in the gardens of the Manor, beckoning everyone else to follow with a gesture of his hand. 

“You’re joking, right?” said Rena as she landed near Chat Noir and Ladybug, immediately followed by everyone else. “But why? What reason does he have? He’s rich as shit! He has everything that he wants.”

Chat Noir turned his head towards the statue of his mother towering in front of them at the back of the garden, as tears sneaked their way out of the corner of his eye. 

“He’s doing it for her,” he said simply. Then he sighed heavily, clenched his fists and continued, “ _ My mother _ .”

Ladybug moved closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He grabbed it and squeezed it, as the gasp of the other eight heroes echoed in the silence of the garden. Carapace was the first to recover from the shock; he moved towards Chat Noir and put a hand on his other shoulder. Rena immediately followed.

“ _ Mec _ ? Is that you?” His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when Chat Noir nodded. “It’s really you! Gosh, now it’s clear why you’ve never been akumatised before!”

Rena facepalmed and moved her hands down her face in utter frustration. Then she hissed in a low tone of voice, “Oh Jesus, this is so screwed up! The icing on the cake would be if Ladybug was Marinette!” 

Both Ladybug and Chat Noir gasped, while at the same time Carapace said, “Gosh, that would be totally mad, Dudette! That I wouldn’t have recognised her before, I mean. I’ve known her since we were both five!”

“Why would it be so impossible?” said Rena, giving him a curt look. “You didn’t recognise even me…”

She noticed the expression of pure panic on Ladybug’s face and raised again an eyebrow before curling her lips into a knowing smirk. Then, she moved closer to Carapace’s ear and whispered into it, “She’s never been akumatised either. Marinette and Adrien are the only people I know that have never been akumatised. And,” she added after giving Ladybug another good look, “now that I look at her, she’s exactly like Marinette, and she’s also  _ panicking  _ exactly like her, as we speak.” 

When Rena winked at her boyfriend, Ladybug knew that the cat was out of the bag. She sighed.

“Is that really you, Adrien?” asked Ryuuko’s voice a little further away. Carapace and Rena moved to give space to Chat Noir, who nodded and lowered his gaze.

“Yes, Ryuuko.”

“And Hawkmoth is…” started Ryuuko, but Queen Bee finished her sentence, “ _ Gabriel Agreste _ . The bastard!” The blonde stomped a foot on the ground and shook her fists. 

“Adrien’s dad? What has he got to do with your mother, Chat Noir?” said King Monkey. Everyone raised an eyebrow and stared at him. 

Ladybug facepalmed. “Don’t worry. We’ll talk about it later.” 

She then proceeded to explain how Adrien had discovered Hawkmoth’s lair underneath the Mansion one day and the events that had led to them giving the Miraculouses back. She explained the plan in detail and answered any question that the others may have had, taking in any bit of advice and adding it to the plan. Then, as she was wrapping up what the next step was going to be, they saw the gate to the mansion open slowly and they all hid behind the wall. 

Slowly but surely, as the first rays of the rising sun started dissipating the darkness of the night, a familiar sedan drove inside the gate and stopped at the front of the Mansion. Ladybug hissed when the door of the car opened and Gabriel came out of it. 

“I thought we had a bit more time,” she whispered under her breath, “but it just means that we need to act now.” She turned to look at the team of superheroes and they all nodded at the same time.

Chat Noir's gaze stopped on the face of every and each of his friends, noticing how determined they all were and he felt a knot clenching his throat. “The window to my bedroom is open. Let’s go!” 

He grabbed Ladybug’s hand as they started running quietly under the rising sun. He didn’t know what would happen, or if they would all survive to see the dawn of another day. But one thing was for sure: he was with  _ her _ , and that was all that mattered. 

Whatever their fate was going to be, they were going to be  _ together _ .

Fin

* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Hi! *Waves nervously***

**So… this is the end…**

***ducks a stone***

**Hey, guys, let’s talk… I know it’s a bit… open as an ending, but the stones are a bit…**

***ducks a tree***

**O.O HELP!!!**

**Well, as I said, I have plans for a *ducks another tree* SEQUEL of this story… so… you just come back for Etoile’s birthday in *coughs* July *coughs***

***DUCKS A** **_KNIFE_ ** *****

**HELP!!!! People are mad here!!!**

**Anyway… hope that even with the open ending you enjoyed this chapter. The title of the story said it all guys, the “DAWN” of the last battle, not the last battle. The outcome of the last battle (just because I ducked knives, I will tell you that** **_Hawkmoth makes the wish_ ** **…) will follow in the next instalment of this story, which will be out, hopefully, in mid July. In the meantime, I have started to post a new Valentine story (Dark Cupid 2.0, I’ll post chapter 2 shortly) AND an AU prince/princess (La Caverne du Papillon d’Or), so you’ll have lots to read and to entertain yourselves before the second story comes out. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter and of the whole story in your comments. I love reading anything that you want to let me know about it.**

**I love you all! Yes, really. Knives and all.**

**Last but not least, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server,** [ **Miraculous Fanworks** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **(for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you next week here with the final chapter of this story!**


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